Our penchant for plugging in random memory
sticks isn’t the only trouble with our USB hygiene, a study shows
Many computer users don’t take enough
precautions when disposing of their USB sticks, leaving a trove of what is
often sensitive information about themselves for the drives’ new owners, a
study has shown.
Researchers from the University of
Hertfordshire purchased 200 second-hand memory sticks – 100 in the United
States, 100 in the United Kingdom – on the open market recently to see how many
of them still contained data from previous owners.
In short, most USB drives did contain
leftover data from previous owners, and the information could be retrieved with
zero or minimal effort, reports Comparitech, which had commissioned the study.
Specifically, 20 people made no attempt
whatsoever to cleanse their storage devices. Simply plugging the memory sticks
into a computer was enough to reveal their contents.
More often than not, however, the data was
deleted, but that did not put it out of reach. Using only publicly available
data-recovery software, the researchers were able to restore the contents of
135 thumb drives with little effort, even where they had been formatted. Of
those, 44 USB drives contained enough information to identify the devices’
previous owners.
Unsurprisingly, the data found on the thumb
drives ran the gamut – from corporate and legal documents, tax forms and pay
slips, all the way to potentially even more disconcerting finds. Those included
photos of money and shotguns together with a search warrant, as well as nude
images of a middle-aged man along with his name and contact details.
Meanwhile, only 34 USB flash drives were
securely wiped with dedicated software while only one was encrypted, putting
whatever data that was ever stored on the sticks beyond reach for the new
owners.
Speaking of which, strong encryption is your best bet to keep your data on
various kinds of storage devices safe from prying eyes. Importantly, this will
give you a peace of mind not only if you decide to sell, give away or toss the
storage media, but even in the not-too-unrealistic scenario that it will go
AWOL.
That is, in fact, another issue with USB sticks, or, rather, with our approach to highly
portable media in general. In addition, past research has also
shown that we’re also very prone to inserting random USB sticks found on
the street into our computers, willingly exposing ourselves to malware.
Last year, the University of Hertfordshire
conducted a similar study with second-hand memory cards and arrived at similar
findings as with the research involving thumb drives.