Afterword

ThimphuTech was the first technology blog in Bhutan. We started writing it in 2009, just as broadband and mobile internet started to take off. (Although internet in Bhutan was launched in 1999, it was either super-slow or super-expensive, and was only used by a selected few).

In the blog, we wrote about technology and food, but also about plenty of other stuff. The blog became popular and influential in Bhutan. A companion bi-weekly column -- Ask Boaz -- was published for many years in the Kuensel, Bhutan's national newspaper. (The complete Kuensel columns are available as an ebook, Blogging with Dragons).

We stopped updating the blog when we left Bhutan in 2014, but the information within the posts can still prove useful, and thus we decided to keep it online.

We thank all our readers.
Tashi Delek,
Boaz & Galit.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Pen-drive attacks US military

Pen-drives are a serious threat to your computer's health. Most computers in Bhutan are infected by malware (MALicious softWARE, such as viruses, worms, and Trojan horses) when a "sick" pen-drive (also known as a "flash drive" or "USB stick") is inserted into your desktop or laptop. Malware can reduce the performance of your computer, use your bandwidth, and in general be quite annoying. But it can also pose a real threat.

It was recently revealed that in 2008, an infected pen-drive was inserted into a laptop belonging to the US military. Once the laptop was infected, classified documents could be transferred to remote servers operated by a foreign government or other covert organization. The malware also spread and contaminated other computers in the military network. This attack, which started in the Middle East, was described by a U.S. official as the "most significant breach" of the U.S. military's computers ever.

Click here for the complete story.

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