Dangers of Using Pendrive

Trojans Think In Mandarin
The latest Chinese hacking scare finds India’s vital organs baffled and unready
ARINDAM MUKHERJEE, DEBARSHI DASGUPTA , LOLA NAYAR
Outlook India Magazine – Issue dated 26/4/2010

It’s been a little over a year since the Indian army discovered one of its gravest cyber security lapses. The attack, which had its origins in China, was never publicised and didn’t figure in any internal report. But the damage was immense, say sources familiar with the breach of India’s military and security establishments.

“We never keep anything sensitive on a computer that is connected to the internet,” an officer with the Army Cyber Security Establishment told Outlook. But this one was different. The Chinese hackers developed Trojan virus software that downloaded on to a pen drive. Here’s how it worked: an officer connected the pen drive to a computer connected to the Net, infecting the pen drive. He then used the infected pen drive on a computer not connected to the Net. The malicious software immediately downloaded itself onto the hard drive, collected a lot of sensitive files and waited for the pen drive to be reconnected.

“When the drive would be connected to a computer with internet connectivity,” the officer explained, “it would immediately begin transmitting all the sensitive files back to a secure server.” This continued for months and several unconnected computers at the army headquarters were infected before the cyber security cell got alerted. “By then we did not have a clue about how much we had lost. And it was some pretty sensitive stuff,” said the officer.