Secure USB Drive

This week marks one year since the Conficker worm (known as Downadup at the time) was discovered in the wild.  As we know, it went on to become one of the biggest infections ever seen, with an estimated 12 million-plus PCs infected globally.

This interview with Eric Sites, a member of the Conficker Working Group, looks at what has happened through Conficker’s lifespan, and speculates as to who developed the worm.

Conficker has also been instrumental in driving changes to everyday computing practice.  As one of the first worms to exploit Windows Autorun and to spread via removable media, it’s forced companies to re-evaluate the way they use devices such as USB flash drives. 

It made the security sector look at providing anti-malware software to protect data on devices other than PCs – such as on our secure USB drives with onboard AV scanning.  This shows that with any problem, there is also an opportunity to improve data security.