Unsecured USBs could cause 'total meltdown'

Businesses are being warned to check for malware on their computer systems today, as staff distracted by April Fool’s jokes may have let their guard slip.

USB safestick provider BlockMaster warned that hackers may yesterday have used the opportunity given by April Fool’s day to take advantage of the lack of care paid to USB security.

With 20,000,000 unsecured USB sticks used in businesses, and with 62% of employees leaving sticks plugged in to unattended computers, businesses are extremely vulnerable to malware spread by USB drives.

Conficker, a worm spread through unsecured USB sticks, is a particular threat, having already infected over 200 million computers around the world.

A new strain of the Conficker virus, launched by hackers yesterday, is expected to infect an additional 11 million PCs.

BlockMaster CEO Daniel Östner said: “The major threat facing businesses is malicious content which could be downloaded in an April fools prank on the Internet or an email, infiltrating USBs and destroying intellectual property.

“Another security risk is if content is uploaded from an unsecured USB as a joke accidentally wiping or replacing critical data with viruses and malware.

“These threats have the capability of creating total meltdown for an organisation; proving that businesses must have security processes in place to protect their networks from the threats posed by unsecured USBs.”