A Lot of People Carelessly Plug In Random USB Drives Into Their Computers (vice.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Scientists have proven that a lot of people will carelessly plug in a USB drive found on the ground, exposing themselves to potential infections from malware. The researchers dropped 297 USB flash drives on a university campus and saw that in 48% of the cases, people picked them up, plugged them in, and opened files from the drive on their computers. Should such people be mocked? Would you plug in a USB drive that you found on the ground? Bruce Schneier, an American cryptographer, computer security and privacy specialist makes a good point: People get USB sticks all the time. The problem isn't that people are idiots, that they should know that a USB stick found on the street is automatically bad and a USB stick given away at a trade show is automatically good. The problem is that the OS trusts random USB sticks. The problem is that the OS will automatically run a program that can install malware from a USB stick. The problem is that it isn't safe to plug a USB stick into a computer.

Comments

I do the same thing with my penis

[Anonymous Coward]

Never know what STDs are there, but YOLO

Re:I do the same thing with my penis

[Xenx]

As this is Slashdot, I imagine your hand has been monogamous. Risk of STDs should be low.

Trust your own

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

As a Canadian, I cannot trust either China nor the USA about spyware and trojans. This means that unless the USB drive is made of wood and smells like maple syrup, I don't trust it.

Re:The chance of getting juicy selfies are a lot h

[ImprovOmega]

That was some epically beautiful nerdiness right there.