Pro tip: Always scan USB drives, learned the hard way | Cybersecurity Tips

Spencer Webb · 2026-03-04T05:46:15.014158+00:00

I plugged in a USB drive from a friend without thinking. It had a virus that locked some of my files. I had to use backup recovery and clean my system. Now I scan every external device before opening anything.

schmidt.troy5mo ago

You really trust your friends' computer skills that much? In my experience, most people have no idea their own stuff is infected. A background scan is good, but it can miss things that a direct scan of the drive catches right away. That 30% number from Wired is scary for a reason. It only takes one time to ruin your whole system, and then you're the one wasting hours fixing it. A quick scan is a tiny bit of time for a lot of peace of mind.

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dylancampbell7mo ago

Got to be honest, I usually just plug and play with stuff from people I know. Most friends aren't trying to give me a virus, lol. Modern computers have decent defenses running in the background anyway. Feels like overkill to scan every single thumb drive, that's just more time wasted. I'd only get paranoid about random drives found in a parking lot or something. My system's fine so far.

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irisp677mo ago

Read in Wired about 30% of found USB drives having malware.

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