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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."

3 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. Mac by cyachallenge · · Score: 5, Insightful
    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.

  2. Encryption by Hatta · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The whole point of portable USB sticks is to access your data from strange computers. Plugging an encrypted USB stick into a strange computer completely defeats the point of the encryption. None of my USB sticks are encrypted; they don't need to be because they have no personal information on them.

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  3. Re:What do you expect .. by jabberw0k · · Score: 5, Insightful

    most lost USB sticks are being handed into lost property rather than being plugged into computers by users.

    100% of items handed in, have been handed in -- what a surprise! How do they track lost items that were not handed in? This is as accurate as Gracie Allen's telephone poll -- 100% of people she phoned, had a phone.