Cybersecurity

Yeah. If you work for the Men in Black, and you're a regular employee the policy is going to be something like "never under any circumstances plug anything into your PC that hasn't been given to you by MiB IT staff".

If you work for the Men in Black in cybersecurity and your job might involve investigating strange USB drives handed to you by aliens, agents, spies or employees who found one in the parking lot, you probably already have a rigidly documented procedure involving a special air-gapped, locked down computer in a bomb-proof, EM-shielded, dimension-shifted room, and you don't need to ask for advice on Lemmy.

If you work for the Men in Black in cybersecurity and there isn't yet a procedure for investigating strange USB drives handed to you by aliens, agents, spies or employees who found one in the parking lot, and you're somehow in charge of creating such a procedure, you're again probably not going to be posting on Lemmy asking for tips. You're probably going to be doing deep research on various USB and USB-look-alike threat vectors. Then, write a report, have it reviewed and in a decade you'll have an ultra-safe procedure that nobody follows.

For everybody who doesn't work for the Men in Black, just plug it in and take a look, and don't do anything dumb like double clicking on "Really Just A Word.doc.exe".

There are exceptions, like if you have a psycho jealous ex who also happens to be a ruthless hacker. But, that isn't most people, thankfully.

But, this is a cybersecurity forum, and so you're going to get praised for coming up with the most outlandish possible threat vector, and the most complex and inconvenient way to counter it. Suggesting normal levels of precaution is going to get shouted down because it implies that that person isn't knowledgeable about the vaguely possible incredible threat vectors that you can prove your worth by showing you know all about.