Open Unknown USB Drives/CD-ROMs With A Virtual Machine To Avoid Malware Attacks

The US Department of Homeland Security recently planted several USB drives and CD-ROMs in a government facility parking lot to see how easy it would be to spread viruses, and 60% of workers plugged the drives and CDs into their computers accidentally executing the malware inside. To avoid the same mistake you should always open unkown discs and USB drives with a virtual machine.

Photo by Flickr user Viewoftheworld

Curiosity can get the best of us. If you’re the kind of person who is dying to know what might be on a found drive, use a virtual machine with no permissions. That way no matter what lurks on the drive you can ensure that it won’t spread through your system.

Virtualisation simply means running one OS(the “guest”) on another OS (the “Host”). You can configure your guest OS to allow no permissions so that you can see what data is on the disc/drive without leaving any way for potential malware to harm your system. To learn how to use virtual machines check out our beginner’s guide to creating virtual machines with VirtualBox.

Human Errors Fuel Hacking as Test Shows Nothing Stops Idiocy[Bloomberg via TNW]

Republished from Lifehacker