Viruses on blank memory cards.

OK, now what brand card? and what AV program?

Was this a result of a scan?

Was this with Nod32?

Where did you get the cards from??

Chinese shop. they were sealed in an original plastic wrap/cardboard casing with unbroken seal so no chance of any non factory contamination. imported from Malaysia.
Samsung branded 16GB SDHC with 14.8GB free space formatted FAT32.
scanned with eset nod32.

This is why the US DOD temporarily banned external media in November and then more recently disabled autorun on all their computers.

These viruses and worms have shown up on "blank" CDs and DVDs, new digital photo frames, "blank" flash drives, etc. and then take advantage of windows autorun "feature" to propagate.

$10 for a 4GB card suddenly doesn't seem like such a good deal.

'Nuff said.

If I were to purchase an SD card or memory stick, How could I check it for viruses? Should I disable auto run, and scan the memory devise with a program like McAfee?

Yes.

This is the correct procedure

I believe all the "better" virus detection engines with real time scanning will detect a virus file. As long as the virus scanning software is started first then the item - memory stick, CD or whatever is inserted it should see the virus files.

I don't know if all the virus scanners have real time scanning - I use avast and it has caught viruses from downloads immediately.

I goggled how to disable auto run for CD and USB drives and found the information did not work, How could I do this easily!

regrettably this will not help. the viruses on there are mostly unknown and most scanners will not pick them up. avast and eset nod32 are the only ones with HEURISTICS ENABLED which will pick them up. i had posted a copy of the viruses to test antivirus software but the overzealous mods deleted my link. ive submitted the viruses to eset and maybe they will incorporate them into future scanner updates. i strongly suggest nod32 with full heuristic mode enabled for these viruses.

Rather than take any chances wouldn't it be advisable to just reformat the card? Anything on it would be deleted in the process.

pretty much what i did. unfortunately putting these cards into a windows machine (so that you can format them) causes the viruses to autorun. by the time you format, the battle is lost.
use an apple mac or unix box to format cards then use them on a windows box. alternatively your camera or phone might have a format function. use that.

Definitely a good idea to take measures to disable autorun/autoplay of any removable media.

See:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953252

http://www.pcdoctor-guide.com/wordpress/?page_id=1546

Disable autoplay in windoze!
Additionally, reformat any new flash memory you purchase.
1) It will get rid of anything bad
2) Its a good test. A full format will touch all the cells and any flaws will be discovered.

Most commercial A/V software has Heuristic scanning modes. I'm using a commercial package that has full heuristic scanning and has had for at least 5 years. It's the only defense against many of the worms and mututations that are being spawned.

In Vista:

http://antivirus.about.com/od/securitytips/ht/vista_autorun....

In Windows XP:

http://antivirus.about.com/od/securitytips/ht/autorun.htm

..................

1. disable autorun (permanently or temporarily)
2. format the card

100% foolproof

Updated information:

http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA09-020A.html

Thank you for this virus info. Who would of thunk?

Has anyone heard of any viruses transfered to the card by mac. I haven't looked into it too much but apparently there are mac viruses now.