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25% of Worms Spread Via USB

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the to-your-mom dept.

An anonymous reader writes "In 2010, 25 percent of new worms have been specifically designed to spread through USB storage devices connected to computers, according to PandaLabs. This distribution technique is highly effective. With survey responses from more than 10,470 companies across 20 countries, it was revealed that approximately 48 percent of SMBs (with up to 1,000 computers) admit to having been infected by some type of malware over the last year. As further proof, 27 percent confirmed that the source of the infection was a USB device connected to a computer."

3 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Re:No, really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Were there any worms spread using a serial port?

    heh. oddly enough...

  2. Re:Surprise? by DavidTC · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yes, but an equally useful thing would have simply been a 'Install program' menu item, that, when launched, looks on all removable media for autorun.inf files or whatever, and presents their devices, names, and icons in a little list where you pick one.

    Automatically running it was just stupid. You can automate systems but still put a menu item to start the process.

    Hell, in some cases, that would result in less steps. We've all had to walk someone through an install progress, and ended up first having to uninstall something else or update a driver and then reboot...at which point, to get autorun to work, they have to eject the damn CD and put it back in.

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  3. Again no word of Microsoft or Windows by devent · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I posted it already on another news about a Windows bot net. The trojan/usb infection is only on Microsoft Windows. Please mention that. I and people with Macs couldn't care less. So I just post again and again and again:

    It's 25 percent of new Windows worms. Approximately 48 percent of Windows SMBs (with up to 1,000 computers) admit to having been infected by some type of malware over the last year. Linux and MacOS SMBs are still save and will be save.

    I would say Dell was right:

    "6) Ubuntu is safer than Microsoft Windows: The vast majority of viruses and spyware written by hackers are not designed to target and attack Linux." from http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/14/dell_ubuntu_windows_security/

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