In 2016 a group of researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign did an experiment. They left 297 USB memory keys scattered around campus and waited to see what would happen. Almost 50% of those devices were connected to a PCand that showed that people often do not perceive the risks of such an action.
It seems incredible, but that trend does not seem to have changed. USB devices are responsible for the 9% of cybersecurity incidentsand the practice continues to pose significant risks, especially in businesses.
If you find a USB key, it might be better not to use it
This was revealed by a study by Expel, a security consultancy that highlighted how in January 2022 it was remarkable the number of incidents based on memory sticks or external hard drives that are connected through the USB port.
The Phishing remains the clear attack vectorand although the use of valid passwords and credentials led to some massive data theft, it was surprising to see how these USB device-based attacks were still so prevalent.
in Xataka
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In fact, the percentage of attacks via USB devices grew to 20% if incidents involving cloud services were not taken into account. The risks are important for end users, but they are even more important for companies.
Those devices may have been infected with all kinds of malware variants —there are a few really dangerous ones— that for example look for additional storage devices where they spread and can also spread to devices connected to the local area network.
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There are of course methods to avoid this danger: using an antivirus and encrypting the contents of the disk is recommended. It’s also a good idea not to leave the laptop logged in but unattended—anyone could plug in a malware-laden USB key at that point—but the best solution, of course, is to do not trust USB devices whose origin we do not know.
Via | VentureBeat
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The news
USB flash drives are still a security risk: 9% of cyberattacks are due to them
was originally published in
Xataka
by Xavier Pastor.
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism