More advanced drives do not solve the basic problem of being a vector for malware, but they can protect the data on the drive and prevent firmware-based attacks such as BadUSB, according to Andrew Ewing, Flash Business Unit manager at storage-maker Kingston. When buying a drive, picking one with hardware encryption is also a good step. While that does not necessarily protect against all threats-flash memory has been known to be infected by a virus at the manufacturer-it does protect against the most common types of dangers.Įncrypted USB drives offer additional safety
The best that consumers can do is buy their own USB drives. We review it to see if there are any threats that took place.”Įrase the USB drive? This protects against file-based attacks, but firmware attacks, such as BadUSB, would not be prevented.
“We often do executive protection, where, when executives go overseas or to a big conference, we give them temporary equipment, and if something happens, we get it back. “We have a lab environment, and we have isolated sandboxed systems,” Novak continued. When the company finds untrusted USB drives, it can test them, said Chris Novak, a director with the firm’s RISK team, a computer investigations group. “Do not trust, don’t plug or insert untrusted media into your computer.”įor anyone tempted by the relative ubiquity of USB drives, this is hard advice to take. Security services provider Verizon, which publishes the annual data breach report, recommends that companies attempt to keep track of whenever USB drives are used. “In the current world, there is no advice…except to know the provenance of the USB drive,” Bailey said. Would you open an email attachment from someone you did not know, or one that seemed suspicious? Opening files on an untrusted USB drive is similar, said Michael Bailey, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and one of the co-authors of the research paper.
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