Did he extract my hard drive information with his USB key under the guise of loading a Wi-Fi printer on my laptop?
Someone was "helping me out" by loading the Wi-Fi printer info on my laptop. When the USB key was inserted, it extracted information from my laptop first, very fast. Then it downloaded the printer program and asked for set-up. I am highly suspicious as to why the the USB key didn't, upon insertion, have me open it, click on the printer Wi-Fi download software, and lead me through the downloading steps. I don't understand why there was an initial extraction, then it just loaded the software up to the point where it asks me standard downloading questions. Was all of my information stolen/loaded onto his flash drive in that extract, or was it really necessary? I have an external CD/DVD which wouldn't load the Wi-Fi printer software in the first place, that's why my "friend" offered to "put it on there" for me. By extracting info first? Really? And no prompt to open the flash drive?
Software/Hardware used:
HP Photosmart 5520 series (network) printer software
Software/Hardware used:
HP Photosmart 5520 series (network) printer software
ASKED:
February 19, 2013 1:36 PM
UPDATED:
February 19, 2013 1:37 PM
Answer Wiki:
There is a file called AUTORUN.INF which can appear on removable devices and will be automatically run based on your computer settings. You should turn off this functionality. This did not necessarily take data from your computer but it is disconcerting.
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Please define “extracted information from my laptop first, very fast”. First, how do you know anything was “extracted”? And second, what is “very fast”? Sub-second? Five seconds? Twenty seconds? — Tom