A new worm that’s capable of spreading via USB flash drives was identified last week.  The so-called ‘Obama’ worm, like the Downadup worm which spread so quickly in recent weeks, uses the Windows Autorun feature to install itself automatically on any drive it connects with.

The good news is, the worm seems to have no malicious action.  It is also poorly written according to analysts, and so is unlikely to become widespread.

But what this does show is, malware writers now see USB drives as a key vector for spreading infections within organisations.  That’s why secure USB flash drives that include hardware encryption and on-board antivirus scanning will become a key weapon in the the security battle this year, as they stop both data loss and malware spread.