Remember our Christmas story about virus infected digital photo frames? Earlier this week, AP ran a story about virus infected devices in general and featured a mention and photo of a Los Angeles-area resident who had purchased one of those viral frames. His name is Jerry Askew and when I read the article, I thought to myself, "Hey, I know that guy!"
Indeed I do. We were buddies at our first post-college job way back in the 1980's. I even attended his wedding. I used this opportunity to reconnect and gave him a call. I wondered about how the reporter had found him, and it turns out Jerry had reported his damaged photo frame to The SANS Institute, a highly respected organization for information and training on computer security topics. The reporter had gone there looking for information on the issue and was given Jerry's information. It also turns out that Jerry's computer was saved from being infected by the viral photo frame by his antivirus software. It's nice to read about someone benefitting so clearly from software like ours.