Last week, Wired began reporting that the US Army has banned the use of USB drives after a worm that spreads by copying itself to thumb drives or other removable media infiltrated Army networks.

It’s not the first time malware has been spread through this vector. In May, 2007 the SillyFD-AA worm spread by copying itself onto removable media such as USB flash drives, then automatically running when that drive was connected to a PC. The following month, the LiarVB-A worm surfaced. Like the SillyFD-AA worm, it too spread by copying itself onto removable drives such as USB flash drives and running as soon as the device connected to a PC.

And more recently, in August 2008, NASA made headlines after the TGammima.AG worm infected a computer on the International Space Station. And how did it get there? Via a USB flash drive.

Read More »