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Man finds USB stick with Heathrow security plans, Queen’s travel details
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- evv 9y agoMost people would happily plug a random USB stick off the street into their computer. Personally, I would avoid plugging in random dongles- unless my curiosity got the better of me. This unemployed London man clearly knows his shit- he plugged the stick into a random library computer!
- rhcom2 9y agoGet a virtual machine and let your curiosity run wild.
- Mediterraneo10 9y agoThere have been exploits that attack the firmware of the USB microcontroller on your computer. Using a VM doesn’t protect against that.
- lend000 9y agoNot to mention malicious circuit attacks that fry your computer. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/10/usb-killer-flash-drive-can-fry-your-computers-innards-in-seconds/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/10/usb-k...
- QAPereo 9y agoBetter to just use a disposable computer.
- brian-armstrong 9y agoBut what if it snow crashes you on plugin?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- redorb 9y agomy first thought was to use a chrome book :) but then I thought what if it was the kind of USB that was rigged to physically break the computer...
- hawski 9y agoBetter buy an used computer. They are remarkably cheap.
- jxramos 9y agoor an old outdated family laptop that's several generations old and wiped clean.
- IgorPartola 9y agoI'd much sooner plug it into something like a RaspberryPi 2 (the one without a Wi-Fi chip). And maybe have it running some *BSD or some such. Something that isn't normally targeted by malware.
- charlesdm 9y ago"The man turned over the drive to a reporter at the Sunday Mirror." Clearly the most obvious thing to do.
- stevenj 9y agoHe may have been paid for it.
- contingencies 9y agoCould have made more money at an embassy (risky), or darknet.
- lloeki 9y agoMaybe you don't trust the police to keep it safe. Maybe you don't trust the police to trust you and take this seriously. Maybe you'd rather have such mishaps be known than kept silent, hoping for things to get better. Then again I don't know squat about what kind of editorial line or journalistic quality the Sunday Mirror entertains.
- dingaling 9y agoA few years ago I found a phone in the street. It didn't have any return-to or ICE message on the homescreen so I decided to drop it into the local police station in case someone was searching for it. What a mistake that was. Just to hand it in they wanted my name, address, contact details, statement of where and when I found it, what I had done with it since finding it... after standing-around for 10 minutes waiting for the duty officer to saunter down. What an ordeal. Earlier this year I found another phone in a park and took it to the EE store, as it was branded as one of their phones. "Thanks mate! We'll get it back to its owner. Here, have a coffee and a bun on us for being an honest guy!" I know which option I'd choose again in future. I don't blame the gentleman in the story for going to a paper rather than the police, especially having found something the mere possession of which could get him arrested.
- xnzakg 9y agoSomeone made a nice solution for that called CIRClean: https://www.circl.lu/projects/CIRCLean/ https://www.circl.lu/projects/CIRCLean/
- foxhill 9y agoremember, this is the same country whose current government wants to ban unbreakable end-to-end encryption for its citizens. the same government that has had so many data breaches that it has its own wikipedia article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UK_government_data_losses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UK_government_data_los...
- Danihan 9y agoNone in two years tho..
- pavel_lishin 9y agoThat we are aware of.
- synicalx 9y agoExcept for this USB
- funshed 9y agoAirport is not government.
- b3lvedere 9y ago"...we remain vigilant to evolving threats by updating our procedures on a daily basis..." Next on the agenda: How not to lose a usb stick with all that data on it. Stay vigilant Heahtrow! :)
- phyzome 9y agoI'm intrigued by this line in the Mirror article: "There were photos of X-ray machines used by the Queen" So I guess even the Queen has to go through the security procedures.
- grkvlt 9y agoTo prevent threats from insiders. For example, imagine one of her personal staff is blackmailed into placing a bomb in the Queen's handbag, or similar. Also, if she is flying commercially (the Royals use British Airways first class, I believe) then there is a legal requirement (Perhaps from the EU, or the CAA, and maybe also mandated by the destination's aviation authorities?) to search all passengers and X-ray their carry-on baggage, so she would not be able to exempted - remember flightcrew and even pilots have to go through screening!
- basicplus2 9y agoWhy was it not encrypted? Hopeless!
- myrandomcomment 9y agoSystems that deal with this level of security should have the USB ports removed / filled with epoxy. Rule one in a skiff (SCIF).
- rasz 9y ago1 Sunday Mirror pays for leads, might be hungry insider 2 Windows keeps a log of every USB drive ever plugged in, tracing who used that drive will be trivial IF theres ever an investigation (obviously wont be if CISO suddenly realizes his jacked pockets are empty)
- Boothroid 9y agoQui bono? Is it too paranoid to think that leaks from Heathrow benefit Gatwick?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]