Security News Australian Police Warns of Dangerous USB Drives Left Inside Letterboxes

[frogboy]

Australian Police has issued an alert regarding unknown individuals leaving unmarked USB thumb drives inside random people's letterboxes.

The warning, which was published on the website of the Victoria Police, one of Australia's state police departments, warns that upon inserting these USB drives inside their computers, "victims have experienced fraudulent media streaming service offers, as well as other serious issues."

Pakenham residents targeted in recent wave of incidents
According to the police alert, these attacks have currently taken place only in the small and quiet town of Pakenham, 56 km south-east from Melbourne and a population that just surpassed 30,000.

While some crook has found a unique way of distributing banking trojans or who knows what malware, the problem of people blindly plugging USB drives into their computers is not a new one.

A study published in October 2015 revealed that 17 percent of users from across five US cities had no second thoughts about plugging a USB drive in their PCs, moments after they just found it on the street.

As seen in a Mr. Robot episode...

In another study from April 2016, a security researcher inspired by a Mr. Robot TV episode left 300 USBs on the streets of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus.

The researcher was baffled to find out that 98 of the USB sticks had been picked up, and 48 percent of users accessed the devices, trying to click and interact with the files they found inside.

Taking int account that just last month a Hong Kong company also started selling a USB stick that short-circuits any computer it's plugged into, users are advised to show more caution when dealing with newly found USB drives

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[Myriad]

What a strange world we live in ..... " Signs and Wonders "

If you found a small unlabelled brown bottle of liquid in your mailbox , would you drink it ?

And yet people are doing an equally dumb thing with a thumb drive that they found in the mailbox , or even the street !

For me , it is very difficult to have any sympathy for such people .

Call me cynical if you will

" My Momma says 'Stupid is as stupid does ' " - Forrest Gump

 

[Viking]

I hope I get one

 

[Der.Reisende]

Curiosity killed the cat, but with some SD session and other security measures, I think there is a small chance for me to be tempted although I very well know 'bout the danger. Of course hoping it won't grill my PC...
Great share, thank you @frogboy!

 

[nclr11111]

I hope I get one

Also want one. Would be great to see what´s on it! (In a safe environment ofc!)

 

[Omnipotent]

I would plug in the USB with Shadow Defender running, disinfect it then take the USB for free.

 

[Viking]

The suburb is only about a 90 minutes drive from where I live. I'm thinking of driving there and casing all the letter boxes in the hope of finding one

 

[LabZero]

They don't know what to invent, but yes the temptation to insert the USB drive can be strong!

 

[Myriad]

They don't know what to invent, but yes the temptation to insert the USB drive can be strong!

I guess it's human nature
Warn people about the dangers of doing something and there will always be a certain few who will go ahead and do it.

There is a good free tool from McShield that should give protection to " the certain few " .
Also very useful if your work requires that you often have to plug USB drives and you can't be certain they are clean .

 

[Scotfree]

It seems very random that they have been sent to a town with only 30.000 people. Maybe they are just testing the water to see how much damage they can do. Why would you put a strange USB stick into your computer is beyond me....

 

[Andytay70]

I give out USB drives out to my customers lol but no free malware

 

[Deleted member 178]

i would love to get one ! grab it, plug it (in a spare computer) , wipe it = free USB key

 

[hedoc]

I hope I get one

me too.

 

[hedoc]

This is not a new way to spread viruses.
I remember that something like this had happen in England (or USA), I cant exaclty remember, back in 2006/2007.

 

[Myriad]

The classic example of using USB drives to spread malware is Stuxnet.

A most excellent cyber-weapon .

It's creators knew precisely how the target IT system was configured , and that the entire facility was air-gapped
and electronically isolated from the outside world .

There is only one possible way that Stuxnet got into that system ,and that is that somebody plugged in a USB drive .
We will probably never know if the person who did it was an unwitting carrier , or a paid agent .

 

[exCode]

I think it'd be fun to find one in your mailbox.

 

[Cohen]

I do enjoy learning how people spread malware such as this. Using something as powerful as the curiosity in a person to their advantage is something I find fascinating.
If I found one in my mailbox, I'd be too curious not to plug it in; I would set Shadow Defender up on my spare laptop and see what's on it. I'd clean the files off the USB and take my free USB as a victory.

 

[jamescv7]

Windows system: As long you turned off the autoplay feature hence any flashdrive have no ability to execute cause it will not honor the startup script method.

Android, Linux and Mac OS have already immune since flash drives that contains virises are exe based.

Unfortunately different mind set if they found a lost Flashdrive to any form of objects. People already know it and admit