If you see a random USB stick lying around , altruism ( or transparent oddity ) might prompt you to beat it into your electronic computer , open its files , and identify the owner . Experts say this is a terrible idea , since hackers use strategically planted USB devices to gain access to computer web . Despite this bank bill of circumspection , Gizmodo reports , mass of citizenry plug in foreign USB devices anyway , according to a new study from the University of Illinois Urbana - Champaign [ PDF ] .
research worker scattered 297 USB drives around the college ’s reason . The thrust take an assortment of HTML Indian file , include bank bill , documents , and photos . The field ’s coordinators were advise when people slip in the drives into a computer connected to the Internet and opened the single file . By the bailiwick ’s end , 98 percent of the drop drives had been picked up , and 45 per centum had been perused by a third party . ( A few masses without Internet connection might have been missed in the count . )
A web browser windowpane say the clueless computer owners that they were engaging in an experimentation , and asked them to participate in a survey . Less than half take it out , but of those respondent , 68 percentage said they picked up the spliff because they wanted to pass it to the owner . ( The remainder want a USB stick , or were just nosy ; or else of graze a sketch Indian file , well-nigh one-half of user appear through the somebody ’s private vacation files , Vicereports . )
How can we foreclose masses from plug random USB driving into their information processing system ? “ There are no easy solutions to these problems , but they will certainly stretch beyond plainly the technical foul to include a deeper understanding of the societal , behavioral , and economic factor that touch on human behavior , ” Matt Tischer , the study ’s lead researcher , toldVicein an email . “ There is a conflict between admonish user that a particular action is dangerous and convincing them to in reality avoid it . We call for to shut that opening . ”
The study ’s finding will be presented at the37th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacyin May . The independent takeaway ? While it might be tempting to be a Good Samaritan , do n’t afford any files on a USB drive that is n’t yours . What you misplace in karma period , you ’ll make up for with a computer virus - detached internet .
[ h / tGizmodo ]
