Generating and storeing keys on usb pen

[Robert J. Hansen]

> USB is a peer to peer protocol; it requires substantial computing
> power on both ends of the connection.  I'm just waiting for the first
> virus which targets common USB drives; it would rip through colleges
> and workplaces like wildfire.

And then, literally minutes later, this crosses my desk:

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"Hackers debut malware loaded USB ruse"
By John Leyden

Malware purveyors deliberately left USB sticks loaded with a Trojan  
in a London car park in a bid to trick users into getting infected.

The attack was designed to propagate Trojan banking software that  
swiped users' login credentials from compromised machines.

Check Point regional director Nick Lowe mentioned the ruse during a  
presentation at the Infosec trade show on Tuesday, but declined to go  
into further details, citing the need for confidentiality to protect  
an investigation he's involved in.

Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer of security firm F-Secure,  
said separately that Trojan code was replacing phishing emails as the  
preferred method for fraudsters to rip off users' account details.

Banking Trojans are written for profit and sold through Russian  
language websites and elsewhere for between $2,000 and $5,000. Two of  
the main groups of Trojan malware authors - Corpse and SE-Code - are  
based in Russia and "market" the Haxdoor and Apophis strains of  
banking Trojans. An unknown Russian speaking virus writer group is  
behind Torpig, another banking Trojan family. Malicious code variants  
of the Bancos Trojan are sold by an unnamed group in Brazil.

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... Moral of the story: be very careful where you go plugging your  
USB tokens into, recognize they are infection vectors and infection  
targets, recognize they can be compromised, and act accordingly.