diff --git a/imagehasher.py b/imagehasher.py
index 28cc9c9..c013287 100755
--- a/imagehasher.py
+++ b/imagehasher.py
@@ -17,11 +17,16 @@ class ImageHasher(object):
 
 		if path is None and data is None:
 			raise IOError
-		elif path is not None:
-			self.image = Image.open(path)
 		else:
-			self.image = Image.open(StringIO.StringIO(data))
-			
+			try:
+				if path is not None:
+					self.image = Image.open(path)
+				else:
+					self.image = Image.open(StringIO.StringIO(data))
+			except:
+				print "Image data seems corrupted!"
+				# just generate a bogus image
+				self.image = Image.new( "L", (1,1))
 
 	def average_hash(self):
 		image = self.image.resize((self.width, self.height), Image.ANTIALIAS).convert("L")
diff --git a/issueidentifier.py b/issueidentifier.py
index 53c525c..1384e13 100644
--- a/issueidentifier.py
+++ b/issueidentifier.py
@@ -107,11 +107,13 @@ class IssueIdentifier:
 			return ImageHasher( data=image_data ).average_hash() 
 	
 	def getAspectRatio( self, image_data ):
+		try:
+			im = Image.open(StringIO.StringIO(image_data))
+			w,h = im.size
+			return float(h)/float(w)
+		except:
+			return 1.5
 		
-		im = Image.open(StringIO.StringIO(image_data))
-		w,h = im.size
-		return float(h)/float(w)
-
 	def cropCover( self, image_data ):
 		
 		im = Image.open(StringIO.StringIO(image_data))