Virus and Trojan horses; mere mention of these names is more than enough to send people to react negatively. And who wouldn't; these things undermine the health of your computer and compromises all the files and documents that are stored inside your PC. This is the reason why personal computers and laptops of today are defended by anti-viruses so that files that can be sourced from the internet can be treated and will not be allowed to wreak havoc on your computer. But did you know that your personal computer and your laptop are not the only carriers of those Trojan horses and viruses from infected files online? Digital photo frames that are available in the market right now pose significant risks as these digital photo frames will at times carry these unwanted visitors.



Three cases from three consumers

It was reported that three consumers have experienced this issue with their digital photo frames. These frames are those small and flat-panel displays that can display digital images. Each of the three cases according to the Internet Storm Center involved the same product from the same store where they bought the product. The discovery of the malware on these products has reinforced the buyers? perception against electronic devices. Right now, buyers and electronic consumers always cast a watchful eye on the electronic items like digital music players, USB memory stick and other external hard drives. Now the list has been padded to include these digital photo frames.

Manufacturing mishaps

In the early days, most of the consumer devices and other electronic products are infected by these malware as a result of mishaps and errors that have occurred in the manufacturing facility. There was this incident in October 2007 wherein Seagate, the hard disk drive maker mentioned that their products hosted a Trojan horse that has the ability to steal passwords. This Trojan horse infect the systems and in the process steal. the account credentials to the Chinese online games and other games like World of Warcraft. Apple's IPod had the same problem; as a limited number of the IPods featured a Windows computer virus was hosted on the devices and this incident happened in 2006.

The newest attacks on the digital photo frames that were made by Tuscaloosa contained a Trojan horse and based on the filed reports, these Trojan horses appeared to act like the rootkit and hid itself and disables the anti-virus resources of the system. This malware spread itself to other connected device by effectively copying the script, a com file and the auto-run file.

The Trojan horse effectively hides the systems files and also hides itself whilst eliminating the ability of the PC user to show the hidden files. If you will access and set-up our anti-virus, then you can no longer do that as well since the Trojan horse creates processes that blocks your attempts. The presence of this Trojan horse on the digital photo frames also prevents the remote installation of anti-virus components. This means one thing; whatever you have saved in your computer will be put at risk because of this malware. The important thing here is to be aware and be careful with any device that can be connected to your computers.