Worms Spread By Flash Drives
August 27th, 2010 by ComputerBob
Anyone who’s used one knows that USB flash drives are fast, ultra-portable, hold an incredible amount of data, and are very convenient to use.
For the past few months, I’ve carried a 4GB one that holds all of the data, tools and documents that I need and want to be able to access while I’m at work. When I was doing more tech support, I carried a 16GB version that held all of the PC software tools and utilities that I needed.
But along with all of their many advantages, USB flash drives have a big downside: they make it very easy for worms and other malware to quickly multiply and spread their damage.
My current employer — an institution of higher education — used to have all kinds of malware problems caused by students’ infected flash drives. But it hasn’t had any significant infections since it installed software that quickly and automatically scans all USB flash drives for malware upon every insertion.
About two years ago, the U.S. military banned the use of USB flash drives during a particularly serious assault by a worm on its networks. And, just yesterday, the Pentagon confirmed that the 2008 assault — “the most significant breach of U.S. military computers ever” — was caused by a spy who had used a USB flash drive to infect goverment computers.
Insert your own lame “gone in a flash” joke here.
And don’t forget — the military computers that were and are vulnerable to worms are all running Microsoft Windows.
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Cybercrime, Hardware, Microsoft, Security, Tech Support, Windows