In-store Fuji photo kiosks spread malware

Filed Under: Malware

Fujifilm photo kiosk
Earlier this month reports began to come in from Australia that some Windows-based Fuji photo kiosks were infected by malware, and spreading worms to unsuspecting shoppers when they inserted their SD cards and memory sticks to print out their digital snaps.

Now it appears that FujiFilm is installing anti-virus protection onto its devices.

And about time too. But it's not the only solution, of course. Another way to prevent these self-service photo kiosks from passing on an infection like a modern-day Typhoid Mary is to ensure that data can only be read from the customers' SD card or USB stick, not written to it.

At least that way the device could become infected - but wouldn't spread the malware further. Clearly not running Windows on the device would also reduce the chances of infection dramatically.

For their part, Fuji's arch-rivals Sony and Kodak weren't slow to point out to say that their photo kiosk machines had never been infected by malware.

My advice to you, faithful reader, is to take security into your own hands. If you use these self-serve kiosks to print your digital photographs you might be wise to use an SD card or USB stick that has a little switch to physically write-protect it before you plug it in.

After all, the only thing you want over-exposed are your holiday snaps, not your computer security.

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About the author

Graham Cluley is senior technology consultant at Sophos. The readers of Computer Weekly voted him security blogger of the year in 2009 and 2010, and he pipped Stephen Fry to the title of "Twitter user of the year" too. Which was nice. He was also named "Best Security Blogger" by the readers of SC Magazine in 2011. You can subscribe to Graham's updates on Facebook, follow him on Twitter and circle him on Google Plus for regular updates.