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[Ars] Personal data put at risk by auction of unclaimed USB drives

post #1 of 12
Thread Starter 
Personal data put at risk by auction of unclaimed USB drives
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sean Gallagher 
Sophos found personal tax records, a resume and job application, and hundreds of other personal and work documents (including personal photos and other data). None of the USB drives found were encrypted, and two-thirds of the drives were infected with some form of malware. While assisting the Privacy Commissioner’s investigation, Sophos demonstrated that data recovery from USB drives could be completely automated, apart from plugging in and removing the drives.

The part of the article I wanted to discus is the bolded part of the quote. This is quite interesting, that there is so much malware for USB drives out there. This is a wake up call to all of you to not whore out your USB, and if you do use it often, just as often scan it for malware. This is especially true in a college environment.
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post #2 of 12
That's ridiculous. I always die a little inside when I see some form of organisation or government being totally clueless and inconsiderate with other people's data and often their own. Those sticks should have been destroyed after being left unclaimed by someone.
Edited by strollingchimp - 6/18/12 at 10:46am
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post #3 of 12
Personally I didn't realise that running a long format left the data intact, however if I were selling off unclaimed USB sticks I would have made sure that they were clean - probably by using something like Secure Erase.

I always run a SE on any old drives that I am dumping, just did one last night on my GF's old external HDD before taking it to the recycling centre.
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post #4 of 12
wow before i discard a usb or drive i fill it up with a file the size of the usable storage to ensure eveything got wiped.. i do this 5 times then dispose of
post #5 of 12
So the more we plug in our USB drives without protection, the more likely it is able to contract a virus? I see...
     
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post #6 of 12
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wildcard36qs View Post

So the more we plug in our USB drives without protection, the more likely it is able to contract a virus? I see...

lachen.gif

*cough cough cough*

ifyouknowwhatimean.jpg


OT:

This is pretty stupid though. So much user personal info on display.....

There is a ton of malware floating around on USB devices (and a lot of AVs miss some of them). I'm actually surprised it isn't more than 2/3.

In my experience in the xp days, 95% of sticks were infected...
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post #7 of 12
Geez, what are people doing with their flash drives that 66% of them are infected!?!!

You know what? Maybe malicious people purposely leave infected drives around for people to find, keep and use (which then become a part of this statistic)?? Seems like a good idea if you were malicious.
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post #8 of 12
Why bother installing software or what ever on to a USB thumb drive before throwing away?
Bring a hammer to it then throw it away.
Or if really paranoid try a blender.
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post #9 of 12
Quote:
Originally Posted by strollingchimp View Post

That's ridiculous. I always die a little inside when I see some form of organisation or government being totally clueless and inconsiderate with other people's data and often their own. Those sticks should have been destroyed after being left unclaimed by someone.

Unfortunately our govenments solution was/is to ban them. I make cross platform/cross agency data transfer a bit hard.
 
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post #10 of 12
We need USB condoms.
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