I found a memory stick with interesting files. What shall I do ?

Jay R

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I found a USB memory stick on the ground in the local town centre. It contains a significant amount of financial data for a large international company based in London (15 miles from me ) including cash forecasts, intercompany balances, expenses ,etc… More importantly it contains payroll data for over 500 staff including names, addresses, dates of birth, bank account details, N.I. ( Social security ) numbers, salary amounts, pension plan numbers, etc…..

So, what do I do with it? I could hand it into the financial regulators and they would be in heaps of trouble, give it to the newspapers, give the company a call and tell them I found it, pop into their offices next time I'm in London, etc…. I don't want to do anything illegal and I can't do anything that would suggest I'm asking for a 'reward' as that could be misconstrued for extortion. I was just wondering if anyone could come up with a (totally legal) but interesting thing I could do with it.




 

jskelton

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I've seen enough movies to know that they will find you. Large men wearing suits and sunglasses will attempt to approach you to reclaim the lost data. You have two choices:

1) Hand it to them and pray they don't shoot you

2) Run. Run now. Start an intercontinental chase (you will need to start by racing either Mini Coopers or motorcycles through the streets of London) eventually ending in Italy where you'll meet up with a sexy, but stand-offish woman who used to work for the company, and witnessed them murdering her father for that memory stick just one week prior. She'll be a tough nut to crack, and she will likely only help you when the danger you brought to her doorstep prevents her from having a choice. Play your cards right and you'll end up in a nondescript hostel in Belarus just before you meet up with her contact. Don't get your hopes up, he will be dead when you arrive. If he's not, you're really in trouble... because he works for the company and is going to kill her. In front of you.

I hope you make the right decision. We need more exciting stories on the news.
 
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Jay R

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I did think of going up there, getting to speak to their Finance Director or MD and then laying it on thick about how I took a day off work, shelled out for a train ticket, could have posted it all on their Facebook page but generously decided not to, etc....
Fact is, If I hand it into the regulators they will be audited, possibly fined, open to being sued by all their staff, share price may take a hit, etc... On top of that, someone will get fired. Mind you, they deserve to after losing an unencrypted stick with all that on it!
 

Str8stroke

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Skeleton is on it. lol
Joking: Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers!
Seriously: I recommend you return it ASAP.

I would call or email someone high up, sorta tell them what you have found. That way they are aware and can help correct the situation. Meet in public to return it. I imagine they would be there rather quickly.
Personally, I would not want a reward. The reward to me is ensuring that peoples, especially regular workers (little guys like myself), information is kept safe. Regardless of my politics.
I guess I couldn't imagine possibly contributing to someone innocent loosing their job over a simple mistake one of their careless, stupid coworkers made. I guess, I would be thinking about all the families that could be impacted by a release of this data.

What if you dropped your prized flashlight? I imagine you would like it back if possible.

Plus, you never know. If you or anyone you know needs a job or some help, they may have a magical opening. Plus you already know the pay! lol
Keep us posted. Fun story.
 

blah9

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In the future you might want to avoid plugging random USB devices into your computer. There is malware out in the world that you can pick up just by plugging a bad USB device into your computer. Hopefully this one wasn't bad.

Anyway, just another possibility, and hopefully nothing negative will come out of this. But consider being careful in the future about that!
 

Lex Icon

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+1 on the malware warning.Flashlights aren't known for containing much personal information. Are the parties concerned unlikely to have back up, or original information? Was the information part of some extortion plan? Is somebody more likely to lose their job if some chain of events comes to light? ...a totally legal but interesting thing you could do..? If you have opened Pandora's (or Walter Middy's) box, you are already involved, and would always be marked as a suspect if coming forward into the spotlight. Memory sticks, or USB flash devices, are basically back up devices, or repositories for pilfered information. I would be less concerned about the rightful owners of the information not having other copies of the information, than getting stuck in some tar pit you don't deserve. Format or erase the contents if I didn't want to destroy the device. Everybody will have more peace of mind. An alternative, if you are concerned about the information being critical for somebody, would be to hand it over to the administration of the location where found it, that's where I would look for something I lost.
 

vestureofblood

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If this is really true my vote is take it to the police and let them deal with it (especially if you think they are breaking the law).

Even if you could find some "legal" way to ask for a "reward" if that company is in fact doing something filthy chances are your "reward" could be paid out in the form of hot lead.

If on the other hand you truly believe they are not doing anything illegal simply returning it to them would suffice.
 
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jskelton

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LOL, ok... people are going wayyy off the deep end here. I thought my post would have set the tone, but I guess not.

Just go to the company, ask to see the CFO because you have some important company info that you must deliver to him. Give it to the CFO, explain where/when you found it, and be on your way. You might get a reward, or a hearty hand shake. Either way, don't ask for, or expect anything. And certainly don't tell them that you poked around and went through files after discovering who to return it to.
 

markr6

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I think that trumps the flash drive I found when I was in college containing just a few porn .avi files.
 

RedLED

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What fool would put all that on a USB drive. You never know who lost it, it may have been someone who stole the info. then lost the drive. Got a hammer? You don't want to be a suspect in something like that, if it is stolen, dump it in the Thames at high tide.

I've found a couple over the years, and no way would I install it in my computer, I just get rid of them as I can't find who lost it anyway.

Actually, just hand it to a Cop, and say someone just dropped it and don't give your name. Let them sort it out.
 
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Jay R

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I did do a search through the addresses to see if there was a member of staff working there who lived in my town. There was only one and he was a junior and not from accounts so certainly shouldn't have been walking around with this sort of stuff. Shouldn't even have access to it. Strange isn't it....
Think jskelton and Str8stroke have it. Dorp it off with someone high up and if I'm lucky perhaps they will offer me a few bob for being a decent chap.

But wouldn't it be funny if I used the details to get a mobile phone with it, used that to post the details on their Facebook page and when they investigated it turns out it was posted by a phone bought by their own managing director.

I wouldn't. But Damn, it would be funny!
 
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NoNotAgain

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I found an iPhone 6 a few months ago in the middle of a shopping center parking lot. At first I though I might have dropped my phone, then realized the case was rather tattered compared to mine.

Noticed it was on Verizon Wireless network. Called Verizon, absolutely no help identifying the owner. About an hour later someone called the phone and I answered. Explained I found the phone on the lot and asked if the could contact the owner? Turns out that the owner was at a class with her later in the day.

Had the woman give her my number and if she had a problem, to just use the find my iPhone feature. A few hours later the owner and her husband showed up rather angry with me. I wasn't asking for anything, nor would have I accepted anything. I'd hate so see someone have to pay for a new phone when there appeared to be nothing wrong with this one, other than being lost.

Next time, I'll toss it in the trash can and go about my way.

Crush the drive and be done with it.
 

jskelton

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I did do a search through the addresses to see if there was a member of staff working there who lived in my town. There was only one and he was a junior and not from accounts so certainly shouldn't have been walking around with this sort of stuff. Shouldn't even have access to it. Strange isn't it....


I live 40 miles from where my office is located, that's several cities away.

Maybe it was an executive that just likes the restaurants or massage parlors in your area. A little rub-n-tug around the corner from you...
 

blah9

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The bigger risk with USB devices is the fact that the firmware itself can be changed. As I understand it the computer/tablet/whatever treats that firmware as trustable and then just runs it in order to interact with the device. So if there is malware in there it would just run when it's plugged in even if you don't do anything else with the device. And unless the virus scanner checks the firmware of the devices attached to the computer (which I doubt but I'm not up on virus scanner tech lately) then you'd never know it was even there. I think that this point it's pretty experimental and unlikely to be going on, but it is a real concern for the future.

Anyway, yeah, perhaps we're taking things too far, but I will never plug in a USB key I found somewhere. Maybe I read too many security articles though haha.
 

markr6

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The bigger risk with USB devices is the fact that the firmware itself can be changed. As I understand it the computer/tablet/whatever treats that firmware as trustable and then just runs it in order to interact with the device. So if there is malware in there it would just run when it's plugged in even if you don't do anything else with the device. And unless the virus scanner checks the firmware of the devices attached to the computer (which I doubt but I'm not up on virus scanner tech lately) then you'd never know it was even there. I think that this point it's pretty experimental and unlikely to be going on, but it is a real concern for the future.

Anyway, yeah, perhaps we're taking things too far, but I will never plug in a USB key I found somewhere. Maybe I read too many security articles though haha.

It's good to hang onto an old burner for this reason so you can satisfy your curiosity. Or do it at work :) Just kidding!
 

Jay R

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My work is so locked up I couldn't even have plugged it into my laptop if I wanted to. Our work computers won't read or write to usb. You have to apply via a director to IT services if you want to transfer anything on or off a usb key. Mind you they forgot to disable the bluetooth so you can just send them to another computer that way Muppets!
 

badtziscool

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I would turn it over to the police and then send an email to someone at the corporation stating that you found their USB drive and have turned it over to the police, and maybe give them the case number. (At least that's what I would do over here in the States. Not sure if police cases in England are handled the same way). That way, you cover yourself and won't be accused of stealing corporate information and the corporation will have piece of mind that their info has not been leaked out. I wouldn't worry about getting anyone into trouble. I'm pretty sure they already know that they've lost the info.
 

NoNotAgain

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My work is so locked up I couldn't even have plugged it into my laptop if I wanted to. Our work computers won't read or write to usb. You have to apply via a director to IT services if you want to transfer anything on or off a usb key. Mind you they forgot to disable the bluetooth so you can just send them to another computer that way Muppets!

Our IT corporate wankers only allowed for one encrypted USB stick (Kensington) and a key pad Apricorn hard drive.

I backed up my email weekly so that I always had my back up.

I use a 128 bit encrypted USB stick, but that wasn't good enough. So I went off and purchased the Apricorn drive. The system couldn't tell the difference between my personal owned and company owned drive.

Financial institutions are under different constraints on data protection. Same for companies HR departments. There is absolutely no reason to have employee social security numbers off the system.

If you turn the stick over to the local media, they'll probably do a news story and the institution will have egg on their face, but my save countless people from identify theft.
 
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