On 2009-02-09, Pete C. wrote:

Tim Wescott wrote:

[ ... ]

... or if your USB drive has been plugged into a machine carrying the
virus.

Yes, but that doesn't answer my question - What exactly are people
carrying on these USB thumb drives? I'm just trying to figure out what
the use is.

As I understand it -- the thumb drives were issued to people at
the Pentagon for transferring data which could (or should) not be sent
over the net.

Also -- they *can* carry encryption keys or encrypted
identification to allow the carrier to access (some) computers in the
restricted areas. (I don't know that they were used in this way, but it
makes sense.)

Someone loaded a bunch of drives of the same type and appearance
with malware and dropped them various places around the parking lot.

People found them, wondered who had lost them, and to determine
that, plugged them into their work computers to read who the owner was
so they could return them.

Zap!

Now -- everyone is having to figure out how to do the things
which the USB keys were being used for.

Enjoy,
DoN.

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