When you participate in trade shows or work with customers and vendors, you may receive a USB Flash Drive or Thumb Drive that can be used in your day-to-day activities. While this gesture may seem kind and handy, there are dangers to this practice. See below why these free, random, or “rogue” flash drives are not all they may seem to be.
Dangers of Utilizing a free or rogue USB Flash Drive/Thumb Drive
Flash Drives have the ability to store data, which is of course the point of them. However, this can also be a critical issue with utilizing a free flash drive. An attacker or malicious actor could add software, or code, to the flash drive. This code can then be run when the flash drive is plugged in. This code can do several things, such as:
- Run a program
- Extract data from your computer
- Run a program that allows an attacker to connect to your computer remotely
- Send an electric current, causing a system failure
I’ve placed real-world examples at the bottom of this article.
How Can You Protect Yourself?
When receiving or finding a flash drive on the ground, you should never connect this to your computer. With the risks above, it can be deemed that you would be better off purchasing a sealed $10 flash drive from a store or utilizing a system such as OneDrive. You may also use an antivirus program on your computer, but this is not always the best approach. This is because if the attack is a “zero-day attack”, or a brand new attack that has not been widely used or detected, your antivirus may not detect the ongoing attack.
Additional Resources:
The worst cyber attack in DoD history came from a USB drive found in a parking lot