It was just a matter of time before viruses and other forms of malware started attacking consumer devices. In fact Apple, always on the cutting edge, shipped an iPod with a virus over a year ago. And now an infected picture frame has been shipped. MSNBC and others are reporting that Best Buy had to pull an Insignia digital picture frame from its shelves because the device had been manufactured with a virus.

Insignia has issued an alert about the problem. In the alert they imply that, if you hook the picture frame up, via USB, to a Windows PC (which is one of the main ways you would get pictures onto it), the PC could become infected with the virus. They claim up-to-date anti-virus software (which all PC users should certainly have, right?) will block the virus and even disinfect the picture frame. Macs, they claim, cannot be infected by the virus.

As more and more consumer devices have computers behind them, and as Internet-based malware becomes a bigger and bigger deal, Internet security for these devices will certainly become a bigger issue as well. Although this virus did not come directly from the Internet (more likely, indirectly via the manufacturing process), it certainly could have. Actually, it’s really just a matter of time...