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Consumer electronics chain Best Buy pulled its Insignia-branded 10.4-inch digital picture frame from store shelves last week after finding that some devices were infected with an older computer virus.

As previously reported by SecurityFocus, some consumers have claimed that digital picture frames received over the holidays have infected their computers with malicious programs. Best Buy recalled its 10.4-inch digital picture frame (model no. NS-DPF10A) after finding that a limited number of devices had been infected during the manufacturing process, according to a statement released last week.

A posting on the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center warned that a broad of array of digital devices will likely expose consumers to such malicious software in the future.

"Whatever the cause, there seems to be some sort of breakdown in the security of the supply chain," said Marcus Sachs, who volunteers as the director of the ISC. "It's easy for retailers to blame the consumers but when the same malware shows up on products purchased at retail stores hundreds of miles apart by different customers it raises serious questions about the true source of the malware."

Computer viruses and Trojan horses have managed to hitch rides on hard drives, software CDs, memory sticks and MP3 players, but have only rarely been found on other types of products with digital memory. In the past, consumer devices infected with malicious code have generally been the result of manufacturing mishaps. In October 2007, for example, hard-disk drive maker Seagate acknowledged that a password-stealing Trojan horse program had infected a number of its disk drives shipped from a factory in China after a computer at the manufacturing facility was infected. The Trojan horse would infect systems and attempt to steal the account credentials to Chinese online games as well as the popular World of Warcraft.

Best Buy, which exclusively sells the Insignia brand, stated that the computer virus on the frames is an older threat and should be recognized by all major computer virus software. The frames are sold through Best Buy stores and online. The virus only affects computers running Microsoft Windows, the company said.