Men are never brave, are they? - Cherie Blair
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Beware of gifts bearing memory
THE US INTERNET STORM CENTER is reminding punters to beware of gizmos bearing non-volatile memory that they might find in their Christmas stockings.
Apparently you should treat such gifts with caution. Non-volatile memory, which is usually found in USB flash drives, MP3 players and digital photo frames, can harbour all kinds of malware, the insecurity experts warn.
If you do get such a device, apparently you should disable Autoplay in Windows and scan it first. Or you can wipe it clean with a low-level format, first thing.
Apparently there is a Conficker infected USB drive that ships with a specially crafted icon appearing in the Autoplay dialogue that appears to be a folder, and clicking on the folder icon activates the worm.
The Vole reportedly has prevented Autoplay problems under Windows 7 by completely removing that option for starting programs from the dialogue for writeable memory devices such as USB flash drives, memory cards and external hard disks.
The Internet Storm Center recommends that users reformat any unsolicited storage device they receive before using it. µ
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Nick F - keep up the good work.
Ed Berridge - likewise.
I too like someone pointing out interesting stories or comments found on the web.
I miss The Inq, it's seeming a bit watered down of late. I wish for The Inq to come back even stronger for 2010.
Do what you do to your best and you will succeed. Pish and pander and you will be too watered down. Or some such rubbish.
One of the most successful hacks is to drop some infected USB drives into the parking lot of a target company. Some moron can be guaranteed to plug it in and let it auto-run. Don't do it!
companies not shipping them with viruses in the first place?
Also, what happens when you have a device that has content preloaded, wipe it to be*sure* it is clean then redownload it from potentially a dodgy source, or pay again 'cause it was DRM'd to the gills.
A agree the Ed and his prose (so to speak) reads a lot like Nick, but if it keeps down the commenst from the Nick haters and apple aplogists, then please continue. If Ed is a real person, then apologies for searing you with the Nick brush.....
Ermm.. you don't mean low-level format. Low-level formatting isn't even possible with pretty much any hardware on the market today.
Low-level formatting refers to things like laying low-level geometry markers (track/sector boundary markers, etc.) so that the hardware can find its point on the disc. Generally it's only even relevant on rotating media since finding your place on the disc doesn't have any meaning within the context of flash storage. Hard drives have shipped from the factory low-level formatted for ~20 years. It isn't even possible to do it again without specialized hardware, in most cases.
You just mean plain old regular 'format'.
+++
... is how most Windows "security" is achieved. Autoplay was always a stupid idea with foreseeable drawbacks and nuisance.
And, I like Ed and / or Nick surfing the web for me and making a *humorous* digest. Why would anyone be here to complain about the basic schtick of the site unless a paid troll? Hmm?
If you sue a computer to low level format many MP3 players they never work properly again.
Should always use the format facility built into the device's settings screens.
Ed Berridge is Nick Farrel I think. Exactly same kinf of pointless article cribbed from a press release that Nick specializes in.