35 - In the enemy base
When the agent infiltrated the base, they responded with hardware disposal.
In 2008, the US military decided to dispose of all removable USB storage devices at all military bases and to stop using USB devices. What led to this decision?
When a USB stick was discovered and analyzed during a Middle East mission, it later turned out that it contained malware from a foreign secret service organization. The data with the malicious code went unnoticed into the internal network of the US military. Ironically, the malicious malware program was called "Agent.btz". When the program and the vulnerability were discovered, the Pentagon decided to immediately dispose of all removable devices that run via the USB interface. To date, this has been one of the largest security breaches in US military history. However, devices that use the USB port remain a security risk to this day. Because of their universal purpose, they can quickly gain control of a system (for example, by pretending to be a keyboard) or just inject dangerous data.
The moral to be learned from this story is that it is particularly important for research institutions and companies to never simply connect third-party USB devices to critical systems. An additional hardware adapter, virtual work environment or at least a virus scanner should always be switched on as a software solution in order to detect malware on a USB device at an early stage.