KPNX—You’re a nice person. And that’s what the latest scam is all about. Here’s how it works, crooks leave a flash drive on the ground. They’re leaving it in the parking lot of a big business or a college campus. They make it look like it just fell out of someone’s workbag or backpack.
These days, a USB is like a wallet. It can sensitive work info in it, personal information, documents, photos. The only way to find out who it belongs to is plug it in to your computer. And THAT is where they get you!
“These things are really, really useful,” says Ken Colburn from the Data Doctors. ”They are helpful so when you find one on the ground you think, ‘oh my goodness’, so if you think like a hacker for a second and strategically drop these infected drives near college campuses or large companies, they know it's just human nature when you find something like this is to plug it in and see what's on it."
Colburn says they are seeing more and more of these high level sophisticated attacks being created to take advantage of the fact people are more likely to put these things in than not.
"They can hide from those security programs, these are much more sophisticated attacks, so just don't take chances with these things."
So, the main take-away: don't be too nice. Really. If you find a flash drive, send out an email at work. Ask the people around you in the parking lot, but don't plug it in.