External hard drives and USB devices are integral to modern technology. They allow you to have data on an easily portable device. Although they’re very helpful, you should be wary of plugging random devices into your computer that you’ve never seen before.
Why You Shouldn’t Plug in Random Devices
- You never want to plug in a random USB device or external hard drive into your computer as it could be full of malicious code. A lot of malicious attackers will put code into external storage devices as a way to access an unsuspecting user’s computer if they decide to plug it in.
- If you’re using a business external storage device make sure that you only plug it into business-approved workstations.
- An extreme measure of preventing unwanted devices from being plugged into your computer is by disabling your external connecting ports and only turning them on when you want to connect a device to your computer.
Always make sure you lock your account when you leave your computer. It helps prevent a malicious user from having easy access to your computer and the external storage device that they possibly plugged in.