Anti-virus software usually does the job, but if malicious code gets through then it can bring your PC to its knees. So a Japanese shrine’s resorted to a rather more unorthodox way of keeping laptops safe.

"Bless this laptop..."

According to a report by website IOL, the Kanda-Myojin Shinto shrine has begun allowing “the faithful” to bring their laptops into the holy temple in order to have their laptops "blessed".

Priests are said to use centuries-old ceremonies to ask the gods to protect supplicants' PCs.

The shire's located, unsurprisingly, near Akihabara – Tokyo’s technology quarter. So it’s possible that the priests and PC sales reps have a deal going whereby you buy a laptop and instead of purchasing the extra warranty, you buy “religious protection service” for it instead.

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