25% of Worms Spread Via USB

An anonymous reader writes "In 2010, 25 percent of new worms have been specifically designed to spread through USB storage devices connected to computers, according to PandaLabs. This distribution technique is highly effective. With survey responses from more than 10,470 companies across 20 countries, it was revealed that approximately 48 percent of SMBs (with up to 1,000 computers) admit to having been infected by some type of malware over the last year. As further proof, 27 percent confirmed that the source of the infection was a USB device connected to a computer."

Big surprise

[betterunixthanunix]

Hm, software vendors put enormous effort into preventing attacks over the Internet. Did anyone really think that virus writers were not going to find new attack vectors?

Re:No, really?

[Anonymous Coward]

Were there any worms spread using a serial port?

heh. oddly enough... [thedailywtf.com]

Hardware write protection (few, but they exist)

[Fencepost]

There are still a few USB drives out there with hardware write protect switches, but they're hard to find and you'll probably have to order online. I have what may at this point be the best listing available at http://www.fencepost.net/2010/03/usb-flash-drives-with-hardware-write-protection/ [fencepost.net], culled from a variety of searches, message boards, and one German computer magazine (c't) which has its own listing.

In the US, the most likely drives to find in stores if you're looking are a couple of Imation models (Pivot and Clip), plus lingering supplies of the older Swivel models (the swivel isn't all that sturdy, pockets will beat it up over time). I've not seen these widely in stores, but you may find the Clip in college bookstores - I suspect that's their target for the style.

Re:Surprise?

[Jedi Alec]

Oh, I do remember the days of DOS. I also remember that anyone too retarded to use a combination of dir and cd almost by definition did not get to touch a computer.

As for autorun being good for tech-support, I wonder how many calls could have been *prevented* by disabling it. And I've had my share of calls as well, so I know the drill ;-)

Re:Surprise?

[DavidTC]

Yes, but an equally useful thing would have simply been a 'Install program' menu item, that, when launched, looks on all removable media for autorun.inf files or whatever, and presents their devices, names, and icons in a little list where you pick one.

Automatically running it was just stupid. You can automate systems but still put a menu item to start the process.

Hell, in some cases, that would result in less steps. We've all had to walk someone through an install progress, and ended up first having to uninstall something else or update a driver and then reboot...at which point, to get autorun to work, they have to eject the damn CD and put it back in.

Again no word of Microsoft or Windows

[devent]

I posted it already on another news about a Windows bot net. The trojan/usb infection is only on Microsoft Windows. Please mention that. I and people with Macs couldn't care less. So I just post again and again and again:

It's 25 percent of new Windows worms. Approximately 48 percent of Windows SMBs (with up to 1,000 computers) admit to having been infected by some type of malware over the last year. Linux and MacOS SMBs are still save and will be save.

I would say Dell was right:

"6) Ubuntu is safer than Microsoft Windows: The vast majority of viruses and spyware written by hackers are not designed to target and attack Linux." from http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/14/dell_ubuntu_windows_security/ [theregister.co.uk]