Another Cyber attack warning

It seems that cyber attacks are a bit like buses: Nothing for a period of time and then three come along at once.

This one is slightly unusual as it aimed at people who use USB sticks.  The criminals leave USB sticks at places where there are lots of people.  The sticks, some of which are branded, launch a ransomware or other virus once plugged into a laptop or other device.  If the device is part of a domain then the virus is transferred to the domain as well.

The one I have seen looks like a blank USB stick but the virus works in the background and in one instance the virus is not activated for up to 48 hours. This could allow an infected set of data to be backed up.  This could prevent a restore of good data in the event of a ransomware attack.

USB sticks are so cheap nowadays it is sheer folly to plug an unknown stick into your system.