Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Question:

Is it possible to save a book cover image for upload to Goodreads and get a virus with the picture?

I spoke, at great length, today with a computer geru who basically told me I was a fool for saving book images to upload here and all the hazards I am bringing onto my computer.

He also said, even if the image did not have a virus, if that website gets a virus it is now attached to me via the picture...yadda yadda

Thoughts?

I'm not sure if it is possible...from what I know about viruses, they have to have executable code and a JPG, GIF, etc doesn't, at least not overtly...they are just a bunch of colored pixels.

I've been saving images from the 'net for years and years - and I mean A LOT of images - and I've never once gotten a virus from them. Viruses are most commonly spread through email attachments or going to bad websites that secretly install crap on your computer.

....found this on the 'net:

Can a virus "hide" in a GIF or JPEG file?

The simple answer is "no". The complete answer is more complex.

GIF and JPEG (.JPG) files contain compressed graphical information. Every now and then, rumors arise that is possible to infect those files with a virus in such a way, that it will spread when you display one of these images. This is technically impossible--no part of the GIF or JPEG format contains code that is executed by the viewer program. It *is* possible to use the least significant bit of the color information for each pixel in GIF files to store additional information, without visibly altering the quality of the picture contained in the file. This is called "steganography" and is sometimes used to transmit secretly encrypted messages. Since a virus is nothing more than information, it is possible to "encode" it into a GIF file and transmit it this way. However, the recipients must be aware that the GIF file contains such hidden information and take some deliberate steps to extract it--it cannot happen against their will.

Any problem doesn't lie in the images themselves but in websites that have malware that executes when you click on a download link. It may download not only the .jpg or .gif to your computer, but also a malware package of some kind. Using "Save image as...." would probably protect against this.

As with all things internetial, it behoves us to be careful about what sites we visit and what settings we have on our browsers, as well as keeping firewalls and a/v software up to date (says she whose a/v crashes every time she tries to update it....). :)

Images are pretty safe--so far :). So be wary of people who say "all I did was download a picture and I got a virus", because they probably don't want to admit they were downloading porn ;).

Your guru isn't much of a guru. If you are really worried, download a free virus scanning software program. I suggest AVG. Actually, I suggest AVG Pro (or whatever they call it) over any of the traditional virus scanning software programs like Norton.

I have anti-virus running (always) and it doesn't show anything harmful. But, I am aware that not all anti virus software pick up on all everything, too--no matter how up-to-date.

I do "save image as" and never download.

Thank you for the info. Good to know.

As with all things internetial..
Love the new word (at least, it's new to me.)

I'm working on getting it in the dictionary :D.