USB flash drives are a great way to store photos, documents, and any media that needs to be transferred to another device— but they’re small. And let’s face it, sometimes small things get lost, overlooked, or discarded.
Well, a new study conducted by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign shows that when users toss their flash drives, people are actually plugging them in and going through them. Approximately 50% of dropped drives will be looked through.
In order to investigate, the team dropped 297 flash drives all over campus. What they found was that within the first six minutes of being dropped, the flash drives were picked up and connected. They then analyzed the types of drives users connected and surveyed the users to learn more about their motivation and security profile.
According to the team, the appearance of the flash drive does not increase the likelihood that it will be picked up, but rather the intentions and nature of the finder. After dropping five different types of drives: one with keys, one with a return label, one that was labeled confidential, one labeled exam solutions, and an unlabeled control drive, they discovered it didn’t really make a difference.
Of those who picked up the USB flash drives, the team found that these individuals were ordinary community members who seem to take more recreational risks than their peers.
The team published its findings in a paper called “Users Really Do Plug in USB Drives They Find.”
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