Viruses and Photo Kiosks

Viruses and Photo Kiosks

Has anyone else been infected at photo kiosks?

This is as much a warning to others as it is a rant about a serious problem in camera shops. A national photography store, which through their guilt and shame will remain nameless, infected my thumb drive yesterday when I stopped in to print 6 photos in a hurry as per a phone call from a client.

As many of us do I make every effort to protect myself from Trojan Horses and Viruses because so much of my business is done digitally these days. I had used my thumb drive to move a couple of recent photos from my PC to my MAC the day before and so they happen to have been on the device when the call came in from a customer for prints… fast. I do fast because they come with a rush payment.

As I was grateful to have them with me I put the thumb drive into the kiosk, made the prints, put them into “my packaging” and delivered them to the customer.

The virus was inserted onto my drive from the PC based kiosk used by everyone ranging from expert to dill weed who replies to every email that says the deposed Ambassador of Kenya wants to deposit $ 4,000,000 into your checking account.

So be aware, when it comes to inserting your memory cards directly from your camera or your thumb drive into a photo kiosk, you may be catching a virus right then and there. My Antivirus software caught it. Will yours.

Oh, the store’s response was, no that can’t be, its just a kiosk.

If you do print at such a thing I suggest two possible safeguards. One a Smart Media card with the switch in the do not write position or a CD with the images on it.

Lee