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Can a camera's memory card transmit a virus to my PC or to another camera?

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Summary: Theoretically it's possible for your camera's memory card to transmit a virus to another PC or camera, but the chances of that happening are very rare.

Can a camera's memory card transmit a virus to my PC or to another camera?

No.

OK, 99.99% no. The 0.01% "maybe" breaks down like this:

Memory cards as disks - memory cards used in digital cameras can, with the right adapters, often be used almost like floppy disks in most personal computers. It's one way to transfer your photos from the camera to computer. So it's theoretically possible that any virus that could propagate via floppy could do so via a memory card being passed around from computer to computer.

Cameras as targets - Digital cameras are in many ways sophisticated dedicated-purpose computers. So it's theoretically possible that if a camera's "operating system" allowed programs to be loaded into the camera somehow, such a program could be a virus.

I've emphasized "theoretically" in both cases above, because to my knowledge neither have ever happened. And in my opinion neither are very likely too. Viruses are just computer programs written by people looking for a thrill. There are more thrills to be had, and much easier ones at that, by making viruses for popular transmission media, like the internet, and popular computer systems, like Windows.

In a nutshell: I wouldn't worry about it.

At all.

Article 386 | Posted July 16, 2004

Recent Comments
34 Comments

Wow, big thanks to Benny Varghese there for the advice. I'm currently traveling through the middle east and my cards contracted this bloody virus thing. I thought that I would have to track down a freeware image recovery program and all that because the folder kept coming up blank after Norton killed the virus (at least one copy of it..it was saved into several other folders within the card as well).

Your advice worked perfectly. Norton killed the virus, then I changed the folder options to show protected system files and bam...there it was.

Long live forums.

Cheers.

Posted by: Kaare Iverson at February 14, 2008 11:16 PM

I was expecting a lot more groping over the net to find a fix. Thankfully got to read Benny Varghese's advice right within the 1st few mins id googled.

Thanks-a-ton Benny!

Posted by: PePe at February 15, 2008 6:33 AM

Fee, The virus mentioned, Fooool.exe DOES write an autorun onto the memory device. Ive had this on my XD memory card and on an SD card.
I read my cards and deleted the viruses from a different operating system to windows. The virus had stored itself onto my computer though and copied itself back onto the removable devices the very next time I connected them using windows.

Posted by: Marty at March 21, 2008 4:25 PM

Hey , how can I remove foool trojan from my PC and phone memory card which supports data storage mode?

Posted by: SK at April 6, 2008 2:44 AM

geee,
I have this uuhgt.bat and its autorun in my SD card. my antivirus has detected it as virus, yet, my PC hangs when i tried to delete it, clean it, and put it in the quarantine.

how can i clean my SD card without formating it.
my graduation pictures are still there.

Posted by: jeme at April 19, 2008 10:27 PM

hi, i've tried doing what Benny Varghese recommended and it worked as far as i could see the folders but the files are still hidden and i can't find them at all.

if i look through properties at the drive it shows that loads of room is still being taken up so the pics are still there but i don't know where...

Posted by: john at June 6, 2008 3:34 AM

I took two pictures and put in the computer when this show me alert virus, and then i click delete after i trait to take pictures again but it was impossible. my camera is olimpus 7.1. what do i can do? please help me thanks.

Posted by: luz lee at June 19, 2008 3:41 PM

I can't see the pictures on my camera when i put it in a card reader and i doubt whether my camera memory card has virus...what to be done?

Posted by: divya at September 5, 2008 4:04 AM

Whilst travelling through SE Asia myself and 2 of my friends SD cards also had a virus (different PC's in different countries!). As someone said, it doesn't cause a problem unless you click/run the files. In my case the '.TRASHES' folder (which I believe the OS uses to mount/dismount the drive), had lots of hidden files including the actual folder (DCIM) containing all of my photos. Another DCIM folder had been placed as unhidden with the virus inside. This is meant to fool the user as everything appears as it should so you click on the folder to view your pics and Bam, the virus is out of the bag!

Posted by: Phil at October 16, 2008 4:26 AM

i have a sonyericsson phone using a m2 memory card and i've got a virus on it i tried formatting the phone and scanning for viruses but it didn't work. can some1 please help me to clean my m.c or to download something

Posted by: shanga at October 22, 2008 4:39 AM

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