Many investors seem to be taking lightly the recent acquisition of McAfee by Intel Corp. (INTC). In fact, they seem bewildered by the move. Why in the world would a maker of chip sets want to own a data security software provider? Let me tell you why.

The days when we subscribed to a third-party service to download those clunky security patches will soon be gone -- and not missed. Those annoying downloads and incessant updates will go the way of the dinosaurs. Intel is preparing for the next generation of data security. Soon your data security will be provided as an integral part of your data handling and communication devices. It will finally be manufactured right into your chip sets. That's the way it should have been long ago.

With President Obama highlighting the national importance of cyber security, we turn to technology specialist Gregg Early to find the best investment ideas in the sector.

Noting that "cyber security is one of the biggest new sectors in the information technology industry," the editor of Personal Finance offers a trio of buys in the field -- McAfee (NYSE: MFE), Versar (AMEX: VSR), and Unisys (NYSE: UIS).

The advisor explains, "In exchange for an annual fee, McAfee allows users to download the basic security software and regular updates. These frequent updates are essential because virus and malware threats are constantly evolving.

In another slap to the sloppiness of vendor quality control, an entire line of Insignia-brand digital photo frames may be shipping with a computer virus installed from the factory. What a nice gift for those who may have received the offending frames as a recent holiday gift, eh?

Insignia, which is an outsourced private-label brand of Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY), produces a 10.4-inch digital photo frame (model: NS-DPF-10A) that may have shipped in volume with a virus on-board due to infected manufacturing workstations used to test the frames before shipment to Best Buy distribution centers.

The problem was uncovered by multiple customers who couldn't figure out why their PCs became infected with a virus after connecting the digital photo frames to download digital pictures. Insignia probably made quite a first impression on those customers...

The retailer has known about the problem since early January, and is providing a hotline for concerned customers to call, but it is not recalling the specific Insignia model. However, remaining models have been pulled from store shelves and production discontinued. For those customers owning the Insignia NS-DPF-10A, better check your PC if you've connected the photo frame to it to download photos.