Olympus Japan warns of virus risk

Posted on 9 Jun 2010 at 14:09

Olympus has become the latest company to fall foul of distributing a virus to its customers on its products' memory with the Stylus Tough 6010 digital camera - known as the Olympus µ Tough-6000 in the UK.

According to Sophos' Graham Cluley, the un-named auto-run virus will attempt to take over Windows-based computers when the camera is connected via the included USB cable or when the included memory card is removed from the camera and inserted into a PC or laptop.

The virus - which it is believed arrived on the camera at the factory - is thought to be included on around 1,700 units manufactured by Olympus Japan and sold exclusively in Japan. So far, international shipments of Olympus cameras are not thought to be affected.

Despite the relatively limited scope of the outbreak, the news is embarrassing for Olympus: with point-and-shoot digital cameras such as its Stylus Tough range appealing to the technical and non-technical alike, it's not hard to imagine an infection such as this causing havoc - especially in cases where a user has purchased a camera at the same time as a new PC, and hasn't quite got around to updating their virus protection just yet.

For its part, Olympus says that it "humbly apologises" for the manufacturing slip-up that saw the virus make its way onto the memory cards, and has started a recall in Japan to ensure that it recovers and repairs all affected cameras - hopefully before they cause any damage in the wild.

Author: Gareth Halfacree

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