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Two-Thirds of Lost USB Drives Carry Malware

Posted by samzenpus on from the bugs-everywhere dept.

itwbennett writes "Antivirus firm Sophos acquired a passel of USB sticks lost by commuters on trains in the Greater Sydney metro area at an auction organized by the Rail Corporation New South Wales. The company analyzed 50 USB sticks and found that not a single one was encrypted and 33 of them were infected with at least one type of malware."

11 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. What do you expect .. by roguegramma · · Score: 5, Funny

    .. they were lost by the 10% of commuters stupid enough to lose an USB stick.

    --
    Hey don't blame me, IANAB
  2. I can't believe that many people... by Fallingcow · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... carry acroread.exe and/or iexplore.exe around on their USB sticks.

    Weird.

    1. Re:I can't believe that many people... by jd · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm more inclined to think that the trains in Australia are carrying viruses and simply infect the USB sticks on contact.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  3. Safe USB by FuzzyHead · · Score: 5, Funny

    I practice safe USB plugging. I put a rubber cover over my USB stick before I try to plug it in to anything. I have never once caught a virus on it.

  4. Re:Mac by Rockoon · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... which unfortunately doesn't really tell us anything, since they don't mention how many of the uninfected storage devices were like that.

    Yes they did, and then the guy you replied to did also.

    It was seven. Were you looking for digits? 7.

    --
    "His name was James Damore."
  5. Re:Mac by John+Bresnahan · · Score: 4, Funny

    FTA

    One interesting aspect of the results was that based on their data and formatting seven of the infected storage devices belonged to Mac OS X users or had been extensively used under this OS.

    Which means that those USB drives had been plugged in to a Windows machine at least once.

  6. Re:Truecrypt? by Anachragnome · · Score: 4, Funny

    Thanks.

    I guess the old adage still applies...

    "Careful where you stick that thing, son..."

  7. Re:Mac by BasilBrush · · Score: 3, Funny

    We have a winner!

  8. Re:Truecrypt? by Artifakt · · Score: 4, Funny

    how would they know if some sort of stenography was being implemented

    You are correct. There is no known way to detect which files were transcribed in shorthand by a person taking dictation before being entered by keyboard...
    Oh, wait, you meant "steganography", didn't you?

    --
    Who is John Cabal?
  9. Re:On purpose by chaboud · · Score: 3, Funny

    Dude. Stop with the brain hurt.

    Clearly, people got these because they are dumb. We know that they are dumb because they ride public transit. They ride public transit because they are poor. Dumb, poor, train people got sticks without understanding what they were for. They probably tried to eat them and left them in the train.

    Because they're dumb, poor, non-computer people.

    QED.

    Now I have to go catch a train home.

  10. Want to bet? by Paul1969 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I find it hard to believe that none of the folks who turned in "lost" USB sticks took a minute to check if there was any hot pr0n on them first.