Dangerous Virus Found on Digital Photo Frames

It has recently come to light that a batch of Insignia photo frames, sold exclusively in the US by Best Buy, had been sold to unsuspecting consumers containing a nasty virus known as Mocmex. This malicious Trojan is able to circumvent over 100 types of security and anti-virus software, including Windows Firewall, and can get into the user’s computer when the photo frame is plugged into a USB port.

The main objective of Mocmex at the moment is to hack gaming accounts and passwords; with characters and objects in Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games reaching high prices in the real-world this is seen as a lucrative area to target. However, analysts believe that it won’t be long until Mocmex or a more dangerous successor will be able to steal any information contained on a PC.

Watch what you plug into your machine

Of course with the Mocmex virus infecting a now discontinued brand of digital photo frames that was only available to buy in the US, you may be wondering what all the fuss is about. This is not the first time that a peripheral that connects to your PC has contained a virus, and according to Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, it is unlikely to be the last: “Other consumer gadgets to have been affected by virus infections in the past include the TomTom satellite navigation device, and Apple Video iPods. In 2006, the Japanese subsidiary of McDonald's recalled 10,000 MP3 players after discovering that they had been infected by a spyware Trojan horse.”

Basically, any device that is able to store data on it, be it an MP3 player, navigation device or USB flash drive, could contain malware on it. Buying it brand new is no guarantee that the device won’t contain malicious programs in its memory.

Viruses usually get onto the devices above in the quality assurance stage of the manufacturing process, when a device is plugged into a contaminated computer for testing.

Advice

As Graham Cluley says: “Our advice to computer users is to always scan any data storage device they are plugging into their computer with an up-to-date anti-virus to make sure it is not harbouring malicious code.

Think of it this way - you may buy shrinkwrapped fruit in the supermarket - but you would still wash it before putting it in your mouth!”