The USB drive is one of the universal ways to transfer data. But you should also be aware that you should not plug in just any unknown random USB flash drive to your laptop or PC.
Because it can potentially put your computer at risk, this is why security experts stress on taking some actions whenever you plug in a USB flash drive to your computer.
One of the guidelines is to do a quick scan to see if there is any virus or spyware on the USB flash drive.
It is crucial that your computer must have an antivirus app installed or it should be up to date with the latest security patches so that it can recognise anything mysterious about the USB device.
Even if you have these security updates on your PC in place you shouldn’t go around plugging in random flash drives that you come across because of the potential security risk.
Every time you plug an unknown flash drive into your computer your risking it because the USB drive can spread Malware to the other storage devices of your PC and can corrupt other files.
In some cases, it can be a Trojan that is specifically designed to steal information from your PC.
Now, that shouldn’t really happen if the flash drive belongs to your friend, (unless he is a hacker or knows his things), but it is still a smart idea to scan it before opening because I can still contain Malware then can corrupt important files on your PC if it is spread.
According to a report published in 2015, an infected USB drive for responsible for the attack at two US power generation facilities documented in late 2012.
The U.S. Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team were called in to investigate and found that infections were spread by USB drives that were plugged into critical systems without back-ups.
How to scan a USB device on Windows.
Scanning a USB device before opening in Windows is quite easy. When you plug it in into your PC, it gets edited organised and you see a USB drive showing up in My Computers.
You can a right click on the drive and then click on Scan, this process would start immediately and would scan the USB flash drive for any infected files.