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Aussie Telco Hands Out Infected USB Drives
David Utter
Staff Writer
2008-05-27
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A little perk delivered to AusCERT attendees by national telco Telstra contained a little something extra besides their storage capability.
 | | Aussie Telco Hands Out Infected USB Drives |  |
We think someone at Telstra must have endured a Homer Simpsonesque, facepalming, 'D'oh' moment. It seems the goodies they handed out contained a little something extra for the security pros in the audience.
SearchSecurity called the incident "deliciously ironic." They confirmed the kerfuffle with a conference spokesperson; the event happened last week.
The little devices contain an autorun variety of malware; SearchSecurity cited security vendor McAfee in deeming the embedded payload a low risk.
Though the conference should have no difficulty rounding up the USB drives, the events leading to the situation bear further consideration. Infecting storage devices at some point during their move through the supply chain process means people could be cracking open a new box of shiny hardware with no idea someone dropped malware onto it.
Think about that happening to a router and the problem becomes clear. The process would enable easy spying by outside entities, likely those who manufacture such hardware and distribute it globally. We won't mention any names.
The potential threat may even hold an economic benefit, depending on how device manufacturers respond to it. Should they decide to shift their supply chain out of places like you know where, maybe a few manufacturing jobs will come back to the US, preferably with more stringent security controls on the process.
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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