"sparklies" in digital image

Can anyone please help me to identify what is going on with my Casio Exilim
s20U images?

Here's a sample:

http://home.earthlink.net/~tfkerin/sample.jpg

I didn't notice this out of the box (just a few weeks ago), but in dark
areas of the images, I am getting white speckles. They're only noticeable in
dark areas or dark photos, and they are not always in the same place (so I
assume they're not dust). Sometimes they appear to be in areas where I can
spot no pattern, whereas other times the sparklies tend to follow the
outlines or contours of an object.

It happens with different SD cards.

Does anybody recognize this type of defect? Or have an idea for the fix?
It's nothing beyond what Photoshop's despeckle filter can fix, but I hate to
have to deal with it -- this doesn;t look normal to me, but maybe somebody
here has seen something like this.

Any clues would be appreciated. Thanks!