A Flash Drive, an Ex Marine and Russia

Matt Laboff January 31, 2019 Security

Update: June 15, 2020

Paul Whelan was sentenced to 16 years in jail for espionage against the United States. As stated in the original post, and IT professional who cannot access “photos” on a flash drive, which was his cover for trading information, is a red flag something was going on.

Update: Feb 3, 2019

“I want to tell the world that I am a victim of political kidnap and ransom,” Whelan said during a press conference in May. “This is retaliation for sanctions.”

“…There are abuses and harassment that I am constantly subject to. There is a case for isolation,” he continued, before listing alleged abuses committed by prison staff.

The former Marine said that he was being subjected to “typical POW Chapter 1 isolation” techniques to run him down and described his imprisonment as the “Salem witch trial mentality.”

According to Reuters, Paul made a direct plea to the President of the United States saying; “Mr president [Trump], we cannot keep America great unless we aggressively protect and defend American citizens wherever they are in the world.” And this is very true.

It’s not every day we see “flash drive” in the headlines in association with espionage. However, it appears American citizen, Paul Whelan, was arrested in Russia for the charge of espionage.

Gathering information from the news surrounding this situation, Mr. Whelan is an ex-Marine who visits Russia. He is a world traveler, a security expert for a US based auto parts supplier [BorgWarner], speaks Russian and uses a Russian social media platform called VKontakte, or VK.

From reports, the arrest happened like this: Whelan met up with a Russian associate who gave him a flash drive. Earlier in the visit, Whelan claims he received digital images from his vacation through his computer, but could not view them on his computer. Because of this, he asked the photos be placed on a flash drive.

Moments after the two met and exchanged the flash drive, the Russian policy arrested Paul and found state secrets on the USB drive.

Whelan claims he knew nothing of the information on the flash drive and was only expecting to see pictures of his vacation. I certainly hope this is the case, and I certainly hope Paul Whelan gets his chance to prove his innocents.

Some back ground information for Paul Whelan includes:

He served 14 years in the US Marine Corps Reserve until he was discharged for bad conduct in 2008.

His discharge was due to being convicted of trying to steal $10,410 in US currency. He was accused of wrongfully using another person’s Social Security number and writing bad checks. Hey, we all do dumb things when we are young.

Playing devil’s advocate, my only concern is a security IT guy not being able to open pictures? Regardless of the picture file format, shouldn’t be that hard. Maybe goes to show you to only use write protected USB sticks when traveling to another country. You never know what could happen.

Souces: CNN and GetUSB.info

Look What 10 Years Does for Lexar and SD Cards

Matt Laboff January 15, 2019 USB News

Almost ten years ago Lexar announced it’s first 1GB SD card. Today Lexar announces their first 1TB SD card. My, how times have changed. A one GB card ten years ago cost about $125 and difficult to find at that capacity. The 1TB card announced today is $499. Doing a quick calculation means the price per Megabyte went from $0.12 cents all the way down to $0.0005 per Megabyte. Awesome!

If the price difference isn’t a big enough shock to you, consider the storage capacity increased this much, yet the form factor of the SD card has not changed.

This new Lexar card is a Class 10 device with transfer speeds over 95MB per second. Ideal for newer cameras capturing video in 4K.
Lexard 1TB SD Card

About Lexar:

Chromebook Gets a USB Guard

Matt Laboff January 11, 2019 Security, Software

Satechi USB-C Hub for New 2018 iPad

Matt Laboff December 14, 2018 USB 3.0, USB Hub

Satechi, a company based in San Diego California unveils a new USB hub for the 2018 iPad Pro.

Designed specifically for 2018 iPad Pro to conveniently access peripheral devices while on the go.

Featuring stunning 4K 30Hz HDMI display (2K 60Hz limitation for iPad Pro), USB-C PD 3.0 charging, USB 3.0 (up to 5 Gb/s) and 3.5mm headphone jack, all over a single USB-C connection. The USB 3.0 socket is the only USB port which transmits data, the USB-C socket sends only power. It’s worth noting the power features USB-C Power Delivery 3.0 charging, so it will deliver optimal power to the connected device while your iPad is churning through 4K video on some other application.

The hub is well designed an in-line with Apple’s design standards. This isn’t a chunking add on to your new iPad.

Satechi is offering the USB hub at $59 and you have the option of two colors while ordering: Silver or Space Grey.

SlideShare of CRC verse Checksum Verification for USB

Matt Laboff November 28, 2018 Flash Storage, Security

Several years back we did a blog post about the difference between CRC Verification and Checksum Verification. You can see the original article here.

Today, we found a SlideShare of the same article.

USB Two Factor Authentication Dongle

Matt Laboff October 25, 2018 Security, USB Reviews

Yubico YubiKey 4 appears to be an excellent device for a two-factor authentication solution. Two factor authentication means you need two things before gaining access. In this case, one piece of information is your password and the other piece is your finger print.

If you are using a password manager right now, (ie. Last Pass, Dashlane, etc) I would recommend getting this. The benefit of this device with a password manager is you can enable two factor authentication to add a new device capable of signing into your account.

This means if someone knows your password, it doesn’t really matter because they would also need your finger print. Understand that nearly all password managers conform to some sort of security protocol like FIDO U2F, smart card (PIV), OpenPGP, etc which in turn works with Yubikey.

USB Condom – Power But No Data

Matt Laboff October 2, 2018 Power for USB

For those in a situation where you plug devices into unknown USB ports, a USB data blocker is a good thing to have around. Or some call it the USB condom!

This is a physical device that sits between the USB host connection and your device. The data blocker enables the power pings of a USB socket, but not the data lines. This means your device will get the power it needs, but without the possibility of infection via data transfers.

For example, if you are at a client’s office and need to connect your device to a USB port and don’t want to risk anything, use the USB data blocker. You’ll get the power, but without the risk of spreading or getting a virus.

Not much use for those who surround themselves with a trusted environment, but for those on the move, I think it’s a great product.

Why is my USB name always CAPS?

Matt Laboff September 18, 2018 USB Hacks

Why is my USB name always CAPS?

The reason is fairly simple. You also have the option to make your USB name or USB volume name upper and lower case.

The all CAPS of a USB name is due to your flash drive being formatted as FAT or FAT32. Windows will not allow FAT or FAT32 devices to use lower case letters.

To use lower case letters, or upper and lower case letters, simply format the drive as exFAT or NTFS. Note; we do not recommend formatting a USB as NTFS … so better to stick with exFAT.

Here are some screen shots to help better understand exactly what to do.

# Right click your USB drive letter, select Format, and do as the images below show

##

Snap Power USB Charger

Matt Laboff July 5, 2018 Off Topic, Power for USB, USB Cables, USB Prototype Design, Useless Novelty

How To Partition a USB Flash Drive in Windows

Matt Laboff May 1, 2018 Flash Storage, Networking, Nexcopy Inc., Security, USB Hacks, USB Tutorials

USB Water Cooled Fan

Matt Laboff April 20, 2018 USB Gadgets

Get ready for summer with this water based USB fan. This is a small, portable fan houses a sponge so when air is drawing over it, cooler air comes out.

I’ve seen on the web some call this a portable air-conditioner, and I think that is unrealistic. However; if you want cooler air than what is in your office or room, this will do the trick.

I’ve read a couple of reviews from Amazon about the fan it people say it’s quite and does a good job of sending a stream of cool air.

You can run the fan directly from USB, or charge the battery for portable use. For example, on a hot summer day watching your kid play travel soccer or softball.

The USB water cooled fan comes in three different colors and is available now, before the heat of summer hits! At the time of this writing the USB fan was only $15. Almost a no-brain-er just as a try.

Inside look:

Theory behind the USB water cooled fan:

Source: Amazon (click to see product)

Pocket Sized USB DNA Reader

Matt Laboff February 22, 2018 Test Equipment, USB News

I won’t claim to be a science expert, but found this article very interesting about a DNA Reader just a little larger than a USB drive.

For years, Illumina Technology has the lead in genome sequencing. Their gear is good and from what I understand their gear is expensive. The MinION (from Oxford Nanopore ) is an inexpensive alternative with some great upsides.

The DNA sequencer is just over $1,000 at the time of this post. Traditionally, a DNA sequencer could only read about 200 basis. A “basis” is a nucleobasis which is a collection of biologicial compounds that make up the basic building blocks of nucleic acid… or DNA.

The MinION is impressive with the ability to read 900,000 basis. Also called “long reads.” With the long reads you get a better idea of the compounds making up the DNA. Although the longer reads are not as accurate as short reads, the trade-off isn’t bad. The amount of time and effort to construct a long read from a collection of short reads is considerable. The less accurate long reads from MinION and not that far off base, thus a bit of a break through.

It is simply amazing that 15 years ago the human genome was a global effort, yet today it can be done in a device no larger than a flash drive.