My wife and children regularly have their photos developed in the self service facilities of the major retailers. Recently however my wife came home with more than photos. She came home with a virus on the memory card.
On the 16th of October 2009 at 11:43am her memory card was infected by the photo developing machine. She used a different memory card on the following Monday and it was also infected. My daughter also used the retailers facilities on the 16th of October at 11:24am and her card was also infected.
As an IT consultant I have to admit I was very surprised this occurred. If you think about it, these machines are often nothing more than a computer which has been dedicated to operate as a photo kiosk. If you can infect your memory card using from a Desktop computer, then it makes sense it could also be infected from a photo kiosk.
If you’ve had photos developed using an in-store facility, I would recommend you check all your memory cards.
Now that I know this can happen, in the future I will be asking my wife to lock her card before installing it in a machine.
If you don’t have anti-virus software installed on your computer, I would recommend it be installed. You can read the result of my face-off of the free anti-virus products I recently completely. The article is on the main JustLocal blog (http://www.blog.justlocal.com.au/).
I have advised the company management (via their customer service area) and also the company in charge of the photo labs, of the problem, as potentially hundreds of local residents may be affected.
The virus can infect your computer when the memory card is inserted into your computer. If you are not comfortable with computers have your memory cards checked by a professional.
- Kelvin Eldridge
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