Infected IBM USB Drives Given Out At AusCERT Conference & USB Malware Prevention

When people attend a security conference, such as the AusCERT, they should not have to worry about anything going wrong; especially concerning malware attacks.

The CERT conferences (Computer Emergency Response Team conferences) are geared towards the learning about and prevention of malware, not to mention mobilizing anti-malware “troops” to clean up an attack, should one arise needing their attention.

Conference Infection Facts

However, in this case, some of the “door gifts” handed out to conference goers at the IBM booths, IBM made USB drives, were infected with malware, causing some problems and widespread concern.

Luckily, though, because this particular malware infection has been around for so long, since 2008, most anti-virus programs have virus definitions for the strain and detected the malware the as soon as someone plugged in the USB drive to their computer.

To date, there has not been any reported damage as the result of the infected drives, just a lot of inconvenience. IBM, once they realized their mistake, sent an email to the conference attendees about the possibility of the USB drives being infected. They do not know that all of the USB drives are infected, but it is better to be safe than sorry and not use any of them.

Ways to Infect USB Drives

USB malware or virus infections are a very common form of attack venue for hackers. Because these drives are passed around all the time, it is easy to stealthily add a file to them and get the USB drive users to pass around the key.

For example, if you download a game to a USB drive without scanning for viruses, it is possible that it is infected with a virus and you do not know it. When you give that drive to a friend to try the game, it infects your friend’s computer, whether they know it or not.

Prevention is Key

These kinds of attacks are easy to prevent; do not use someone else’s USB drive. However, their usage cannot be prevented in all cases. For this reason, having an anti-virus program that has the ability to detect viruses that live on USB drives as well as anywhere on a computer is imperative.

It is also recommended that you plug in your USB drive before and after use and perform an on demand virus and malware scan to see if it has been infected. An ounce of prevention can go a long way to keeping your computer safe and healthy.

Source: CRN

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