USB thumb drives - are they really dangerous?

Relax, I doubt there are crooks out there who are dropping thumb drives in the parking lot, just so unsuspecting people will pick them up, stick them in their computers, and be victims of a phishing scam. (Although at least one security analysis company did that to assess the vulnerability of their client's network.) Still, I wouldn't recommend that you try to access information off any thumb drive you might find lying on the ground!

Thumb drive, USB key, flash drive, pen drive, keychain drive, memory stick - these are all names for the cool little devices that plug into a USB port on your computer. They come in all kinds of colors and shapes, they are extremely portable, and they can hold up to 16 Gigs of data (64-Gig drives are available but very high priced). This is pretty amazing when you consider that one of those 16-Gig thumb drives can hold more information than ten thousand of those hard plastic 3 1/2 " floppy discs (very popular in the 1990's) could hold.

So what's so dangerous about them?

The great strengths of these drives - their portability and their capacity - are also their greatest weaknesses. Portability means that it can easily be lost, damaged or stolen. You can help ensure against losing yours by getting the kind with a strap, and using it! Yes it's geeky, but weigh that against what you have to lose.

Have you ever put a pair of jeans into the wash without completely checking the pockets? Uh oh, that thumb drive might not have been waterproof. Or maybe you dropped it in the driveway and ran over it with your car. There are actually drives available that would survive each of these scenarios. If your lifestyle is more on the edge, you might want to forgo the bargain drives and spring for the waterproof, or titanium, thumb drive.

If your drive is stolen, you'll be happy that you encrypted the files on it. You did encrypt them, right? Some drives come with encryption software. If yours didn't, you can purchase it. Dekart Private Disk and NewSoftwares Folder Lock are two solutions priced under $50.

Be sure that whatever you have stored on the thumb drive is backed up somewhere else. No storage device will last forever, and losing your only copy could be a problem.

Finally, thumb drives are very vulnerable to viruses. If you are in an environment where people routinely bring data in and out, for example an office or campus, then you need to be aware of this real threat. Don't let someone put their drive into your computer unless your virus protection is up-to-date. Even so, infected drives can be set up to "autorun" as soon as they are inserted, and you could wind up with an uninvited guest on your system. If you are using Windows XP, you could try holding down the Shift key while you are inserting the drive, and that should prevent any program from autoplaying. A better solution would be to disable the autorun feature for all USB drives. Microsoft distributes an (unsupported) utility called TweakUI which you can download and then configure to disable autoplay for USB.

Thumb drives are incredible devices - and with a little forethought, you should be able to use them to your great advantage.

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