USB Drives filled with Viruses and Malware are being found in peoples mailboxes

The Basics

• This is currently actively happening in Australia (read police bulletin).
• These drives are full of malware and viruses. Upon insertion, the victims have experienced fraudulent media streaming service offers as well as other serious issues (we would imagine ransomware viruses, and viruses designed for identity theft).
• It’s only a matter of time before this starts to happen in the USA.
• A study by the University of Illinois, University of Michigan, and Google, found that people are pretty likely even to pickup a USB drive on the street (good samaritans we assume, probably to return the USB drive to the owner).
• There are types of USB malware that can literally fry your computer (a version is USB Kill v2).
• While a good anti-virus software is only as good as it is up-to-date and the user. If you’re looking for an anti-virus software, we personally recommend avast! because of the fast update of virus definitions, high test rankings over the years, and it also doesn’t bog down your system like others. Keep in mind though, no anti-virus software is 100% effective, and to backup your files (externally and remotely).

Suggestion: Do not plug in a USB drive into your valuable computer unless it’s from a trusted source.

Read the full article at Hacker News:

Beware — Someone is dropping Malware-infected USB Sticks into People’s Letterbox Australia’s Victoria Police Force has issued a warning that Someone is dropping Malware-infected USB Sticks into People’s Letterbox THEHACKERNEWS.COM|BY SWATI KHANDELWAL Read full article about this Exploit