Warning: Made in China

Remember those Trojan-infected Insignia photo frames sold by Best Buy over the holidays? Turns out, it wasn't just Insignia frames that had been compromised. Reportedly, digital picture frames made by Advanced Design Systems and sold in Sams Club were also infected. Both the Trojan and the frames appear to have been made in China - the same country that exported melamine-tainted dog food, toxic toothpaste, drugged Aqua Dots, lead-contaminated toys, and potentially life threatening pharmaceuticals. And that's all just in the last year.

In the case of the latest comrpromised import, when the affected frames are connected to the computer's USB port, the password-stealing backdoor Trojan leverages the autorun feature to install itself on the PC. The Trojan also modifies the registry to prevent viewing of hidden files and folders and disables antivirus and other security features (including Windows update). Antivirus software has been updated to detect and remove the Trojan, dubbed Win32/Mocmex.AM (CA), W32/Autorun.worm.e (McAfee), and WORM_AGENT.TBH (Trend Micro).

To prevent this and similar types of autorun spread Trojans, disable autorun for all removable drives. And until quality control measures are introduced, you may want to consider 'Made in China' a warning label.