Though USB equipment this sort of as flash drives are easy and make transferring facts in between equipment simpler, they can also be abused by cybercriminals to infect computers with malware and other viruses.
This is why a workforce of researchers and professors from Liverpool Hope College in the British isles have developed a sophisticated new device able of countering the threats posed by destructive USB equipment.
The undertaking, led by Dr Shishir Kumar Shandilya alongside Professor Atulya Nagar, is aimed at removing one particular of the most prevalent paths by which destructive files and systems can be injected by attackers and cybercriminals.
Dr Shandilya supplied even further insight on how one particular of the major problems with flash drives is that a computer’s functioning process typically treats them as a ‘trusted component’ in a press launch, stating:
“If the OS is not configured to prohibit and endorse the user’s permission on an inserted USB device, then as soon as the USB push is inserted it can execute default car operate script that can provide the intended payload to the computing equipment and provide multiple kinds of destructive systems this sort of as viruses, Trojans, Keyloggers, Adware, Remote Obtain Trojans (RATs), and so forth to the computing equipment.”
For this rationale, Dr Shandilya and Professor Nagar have arrive up with the strategy of employing a new variety of ‘intermediate’ device which sits in between a flash push and the USB ports on laptops or computers.
This intermediate device functions as a gateway or barrier and is able of scanning a USB push for destructive computer software which could potentially halt a cyberattack ahead of it has even begun.
According to Dr Shadilya, the team’s new creation safeguards the host computing device by offering an supplemental layer of components protection that can also cover the host’s functioning process facts. This is achieved by presenting disguised facts about a pc to exterior equipment. Nevertheless, the intermediate device also has a technique to detect malware and can grant whole-obtain, partial-obtain or a whole-block to a USB device.
The team’s new device is aspect of an emerging field of cybersecurity exploration acknowledged as Nature-Encouraged Cyber Protection (NICS). This new field incorporates suggestions and phenomena from the natural planet to make certain an functioning process will not drop prey to a predator and is in a position to ward off assaults.
Dr Shadilya and the workforce are currently in the system of obtaining in touch with brands to deliver the device to market while they have a thoroughly-functional prototype by now.