The Curious USB

Names and places mentioned herein are hypothetical.

It was a normal Monday morning when Ravi arrived at the office. While walking through the parking lot, he noticed a shiny pen drive lying on the ground. He became curious to know whether it belonged to a colleague or contained something important.

Without much thought, Ravi picked it up and plugged it into his office laptop.

At first, nothing seemed unusual. But behind the scenes, malware silently began installing itself, spreading across the network, and creating backdoors for attackers. What looked like an innocent USB was actually a trap planted by cybercriminals.

Ravi didn’t mean to cause harm, but his small mistake opened a door for attackers to access sensitive company data.

Lesson Learned

Cybercriminals often use “baiting” tactics like leaving USBs in public spaces, relying on human curiosity to do the rest. One careless action can put an entire organization at risk.

Tips

🛡️ Never plug unknown USB drives or devices into your computer. If you find one, hand it over to IT or security staff.

🧪 Regularly scan even the USB drives you use often for viruses or malware — especially before opening any files.