What you do when you see a random USB drive just lying on the ground? Do you pick it up? Take a look at the data you find on it, and maybe try to return it to its owner? Or simply leave it be?
A team from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign dropped 297 USB drives around the uni grounds, leaving them in places like parking lots, hallways, classrooms, libraries, and cafeterias. They found that almost half of the data sticks ended up being used in a computer, and almost all of them (98 percent) were picked up and removed from where they were originally dropped.
To track what people did with the USB sticks when they found them, the researchers put HTML documents on the drives, masquerading as files called "documents", "math notes", and "winter break pictures". When somebody discovered these files on the drive and tried to open them with an internet-connected computer, the researchers were notified.
Amazingly, despite the potential risks of executing these random files, people did so with 45 percent of the discarded USB drives.
When people opened the HTML files on the drive, they were informed about the experiment and invited to complete an anonymous survey to provide some information about themselves and explain what had motivated them to pick up and use the drive in the first place.
Less than half of the 135 users at this point opted to continue the experiment, but 43 percent did provide feedback. Most of the respondents (68 percent) said they wanted to return the drive to its owner, while 18 percent acknowledged they were merely curious about the contents. Two people admitted they just personally needed a USB drive!
http://www.sciencealert.com/people-...50-of-random-discarded-usb-drives-study-finds
A team from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign dropped 297 USB drives around the uni grounds, leaving them in places like parking lots, hallways, classrooms, libraries, and cafeterias. They found that almost half of the data sticks ended up being used in a computer, and almost all of them (98 percent) were picked up and removed from where they were originally dropped.
To track what people did with the USB sticks when they found them, the researchers put HTML documents on the drives, masquerading as files called "documents", "math notes", and "winter break pictures". When somebody discovered these files on the drive and tried to open them with an internet-connected computer, the researchers were notified.
Amazingly, despite the potential risks of executing these random files, people did so with 45 percent of the discarded USB drives.
When people opened the HTML files on the drive, they were informed about the experiment and invited to complete an anonymous survey to provide some information about themselves and explain what had motivated them to pick up and use the drive in the first place.
Less than half of the 135 users at this point opted to continue the experiment, but 43 percent did provide feedback. Most of the respondents (68 percent) said they wanted to return the drive to its owner, while 18 percent acknowledged they were merely curious about the contents. Two people admitted they just personally needed a USB drive!
http://www.sciencealert.com/people-...50-of-random-discarded-usb-drives-study-finds
