Found a family item

[+ not2rowdy]

Walking through a park and picked up a memory card laying on the sidewalk.

 

It contains typical family photos that go back several years. Quite a few photos of a small child. Nothing that truly identifies the owner. A license plate is in a couple of photos. Some photos with house numbers but I can’t identify the streets. Probably local area though. Unknown if the license plates and house numbers are the card owner.

 

Address V-cards that have a phone number for “home”. Reverse lookup shed no solid leads.

 

Should I call the number? Or would it likely just freak them out?

 

Or maybe provide police with what I know IRT license plate, home numbers and “home” phone and let them try to find the owner?

[+ sniper]

You mean for like a funeral? If there's a church or a funeral home nearby I'd maybe check with them or even leave it there.

[+ glennnn]

If this were my lost property, I would want you to make an effort to return it. In a small town the police would probably help, but city police are just so busy. I would try the phone number. Good if you to care☺

[Scorpio]

You mean for like a funeral? If there's a church or a funeral home nearby I'd maybe check with them or even leave it there.

 

I'm fairly certain he is referring to one of these:

http://www.genuinememorycards.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/memory-cards.jpg

[gallahadesquire]

Call. I found a laptop in a parking lot once. I couldn't boot it, but fortunately there was a letter inside the case, so I was able to return it.

 

The recent passing of my I

iPhone 5S, along with a dead charging cord for my iPad, showed me recently how much we've come to rely and depend on these silicone parasites.

[+ RyanDean]

Why not at least call the number?

Alternately, you might post an image or two at http://www.camerafound.com/

[rvwnsd]

I would call the number. Someone might be frantically looking for it. How nice it would be if you were able to get it back to them.

[Nvr2Thick]

I'd call the number.

[BabyBoomer]

Make the call.

 

~Boomer ~

[+ Keith30309]

If you happen to notice the centrifuges in your nuclear reactor acting a little funny you may want to run a scan on that flash drive.

[+ not2rowdy]

Thanks all for your advice.

 

No good deed goes unpunished. But 95pct confidence the situation is resolved.

 

Home number didn’t work. So I called several different numbers that were in the v-card addresses. I think I may have freaked out some people. No one acknowledged ownership. But they must have further called around among each other and their friends.

 

Today, shortly after I turned the item into the police Lost and Found, I received a phone call from a gentleman claiming ownership. I told him I had already turned it into the police and gave the location where he could reclaim his property. He seemed appreciative for my efforts.

 

More to the story but that’s enough for here.

 

But I would probably do the same again under similar circumstances.

 

>>For @Keith30309: I did consider a “virus plant” and took some precautions opening it.

[Juan Vancouver]

You were very lucky for not having acquired a nasty virus on your computer.

 

Even if you haven't noticed anything strange, I would recommend to run an anti-virus to make sure.

 

No doubt you were moved by a desire to help, but next time you should think twice before inserting unknown hardware into your computer. A host of nastiest can infect it with various degrees of damage.

 

Happy that the story ended well.

[+ deej]

You were very lucky for not having acquired a nasty virus on your computer.

 

Even if you haven't noticed anything strange, I would recommend to run an anti-virus to make sure.

 

No doubt you were moved by a desire to help, but next time you should think twice before inserting unknown hardware into your computer. A host of nastiest can infect it with various degrees of damage.

 

Happy that the story ended well.

 

Wise words. One of the major attack vectors for criminals attempting to break into a corporate network is dropping a USB drive on the sidewalk in front of the company's headquarters. Some well-meaning employee will invariably pick it up and plug it in intending to find the owner, but as soon as they plug it in the corporate network is compromised.

 

Applaud the civic-mindedness, but not the adventurism.

 

When you find a memory card/stick, hand it to building security, or to any law enforcement officer (let THEM get infected!). DO NOT plug it into your computer.

[+ not2rowdy]

...you should think twice before inserting unknown hardware into your computer.

 

Applaud the civic-mindedness, but not the adventurism....DO NOT plug it into your computer.

 

Wise words and concern noted. I took precautions prior to opening.

[rvwnsd]

Wise words and concern noted. I took precautions prior to opening.

http://ext.pimg.tw/ideaslamp/9c0aa6091fffaebe794bdccb012af318.jpg

[+ sync]

Wise words. One of the major attack vectors for criminals attempting to break into a corporate network is dropping a USB drive on the sidewalk in front of the company's headquarters. Some well-meaning employee will invariably pick it up and plug it in intending to find the owner, but as soon as they plug it in the corporate network is compromised.

 

Applaud the civic-mindedness, but not the adventurism.

 

When you find a memory card/stick, hand it to building security, or to any law enforcement officer (let THEM get infected!). DO NOT plug it into your computer.

 

Juan and Deej, so appreciate your postings. It never would have occurred to me that a random memory card could be a hostile host. It's hard to defend being so naive at my age.

[liubit]

Juan and Deej, so appreciate your postings. It never would have occurred to me that a random memory card could be a hostile host. It's hard to defend being so naive at my age.

Same here. I would have plugged it into my computer with no second thoughts. Naive, ignorant, trusting, and stupid am I.

[mike carey]

Same here. I would have plugged it into my computer with no second thoughts. Naive, ignorant, trusting, and stupid am I.

Coincidentally, there was a radio documentary here (don't remember if it was ABC or BBC, the local ABC broadcasts BBC programs over night on some stations) about industrial espionage, and dropping memory sticks was one of the methods they cited. Not putting something like this into your computer is a sensible precaution (unless you have an old computer that you no longer use for your internet connection), but distributing media to infect private computers seems an expensive way to achieve a small gain. Dropping them where they might br picked up and plugged into a corporate network would be well worth the expense.

[+ deej]

Juan and Deej, so appreciate your postings. It never would have occurred to me that a random memory card could be a hostile host. It's hard to defend being so naive at my age.

 

Don't feel naïve. One of the reasons these exploits work in the first place is because it IS so far off of the radar for most people.

[gallahadesquire]

REGARDING comrpomise:

 

My hospital decided they wanted to make error-reporting easier, so they put it on the same computer system as Patient's Clinical information.

"This is very serious, and potentially very detrimental. How do we know it's safe?"

"It's safe. Our servers can't be compromised."

"Okay, yeah, right. And where are these servers?"

"Pittsburgh." (The hospital was in central Massachusetts).

"Oh, yes, there's no WAY that anything could tap into THAT short of a distance."

The gentleman making the proposal was adequately shot down.

A form of Catch-22, I do believe:

 

The only way something is safe on the Internet is not to be on the Internet in the first place.

[+ deej]

A form of Catch-22, I do believe:

 

The only way something is safe on the Internet is not to be on the Internet in the first place.

 

Yup. And if you ever realize your system has been compromised, TAKE IT OFF THE INTERNET IMMEDIATELY. Unplug the wire.