A lot of USB sticks get left behind on the Sydney subway system (just like on any other subway system), and it turns out that most of them are infected with malware. What's more, they tend not to be encrypted, reports Lucian Constantin at IDG News Service.

Antivirus vendor Sophos got its hands on lost USB sticks collected by the Rail Corporation of New South Wales in Australia and analyzed 50 of them. Two-thirds contained at least one strain of malware, and not one was secured with encryption.

"The malware involved was mostly very prevalent, general-purpose, zombie stuff," said Paul Ducklin, head of technology for the Asia Pacific region at Sophos. "Sadly, I think the malware prevalence tells a simple story of poor PC hygiene."

The memory sticks that were analyzed contained everything from documents, images and video to to source code and AutoCAD drawings. However, none of them held government secrets, police information or weapon designs, the company said. Good work holding on to your data, government and law enforcement personnel!

For more:
- see Lucian Constantin's article at PCWorld

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