According to an article posted Friday in Wired magazine,USB thumb drives aren't just handy ways to move files andinformation from place to place, they're also a massive securitythreat due to a fundamental flaw in their design.
|A team of security researchers apparently created a malwareprogram called BadUSB that, they say, proves that the fundemantalsecurity features of every USB drive are effectively worthless,allowing the user to effectively take over a PC just by insertingthe infected USB stick into it.
|“These problems can't be patched,” one of the researchers toldWired. “We're exploiting the very way that USB is designed.”
|Fun!
|They say there's no way to fix the problem, short of eliminatingUSB drives from your daily life altogether, and there's a chancethat other USB-based peripherals — including keyboards, mice andsmartphones — might offer the same vulnerability.
|Clearly, in terms of corporate security and risk, this can ofworms is just opening up.
|Want to continue reading?
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