Perhaps one should be cautious of flash drives
By stealthy
@stealthy (8181)
United States
August 26, 2010 4:58pm CST
Be very careful if you find a flash at an Internet cafe, say or somewhere else like school, etc. There could be something malicious on it that would infect your computer to send personal data to someone on the Internet. This could also mean that you should be careful in buying them. Make sure they well sealed in some kind of very good package and check that you aren't getting one in a package that is of a different type or size than those of the same brand since a one that has been tampered with could have been substituted for one on the rack. Hey if I can thing of these things so can the hackers out to steal you identity.
3 responses
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
27 Aug 10
I am all in favour of caution, but I feel that you are rather exaggerating the issue. You can scan the flash drive prior to accessing the data, and if it is a drive that belonged to someone else then simply format it to eradicate any possible threat.
1 person likes this
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
2 Sep 10
Hi asylum old friend. I'm no novice but I'm a bit slow on the uptake when it comes to computer technology. I was thinking there must be some way of checking out this sort of thing but my brain did not immediately jump to the quickest fix. Thanks for the kick in the pants!
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
2 Sep 10
Thanks for the heads up. I like to think i wouldn't be so silly but there are probably hundreds of thousands who would use an FD if they found one.
What sort of race are we that there are those among us who would happily create this sort of malicious mischief?
@trishasantos (1296)
• Philippines
27 Aug 10
There's a program in the internet that you can download into your computer. It scans flash drives when you insert it. Or other external drives. So worries about viruses. Before you open it, it will automatically scan. Also, have an anti-virus, make sure it is updated and scan regularly. Having an anti virus does not mean that no more virus can pass through it. So scan regularly.
