5 ms·
Most 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
by evv 9y ago
Most 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- jxramos 9y agoor an old outdated family laptop that's several generations old and wiped clean.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/