Your digital photo frame could hold more than pictures, according to security vendor Computer Associates. A virus on the device could steal data from your PC.
The recently discovered virus has been identified as a Trojan horse from China that roots out passwords from online games. However, the authors may have more on the agenda than free game play.
“It is a nasty worm that has a great deal of intelligence,” Brian Grayek, who heads product development at Computer Associates, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Mocmex Evades Detection
Computer Associates calls the virus Mocmex. It recognizes and blocks antivirus protection from more than 100 security vendors. It also passes through the security and firewall built into Microsoft Windows.
Mocmex downloads files from remote locations, randomly names them, and hides them on infected PCs. The hidden agenda and the antivirus blocking make it difficult to trace and rid the machine of the virus that spreads through photo frames and portable storage devices plugged into infected PCs.
Grayek called it the “nuclear bomb” of malware, noting the Trojan authors are well-funded professionals who have designed the virus to capture information without leaving behind any digital footprints.
The China Factor
This isn’t the first time this kind of incident has happened — and it’s unlikely to be the last, according to Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. However, he doesn’t think hackers are deliberately targeting digital photo frames. It’s more likely, he said, that an accident occurred during manufacturing.
“Today, most of these electronic devices are manufactured in China and quality control may not always be all that it should be,” Cluley said. “My suspicion is that the virus was introduced on the conveyor belt; perhaps one in every 50 devices is picked off the conveyor belt and plugged into a PC to check that it works. Now, if that PC…