An Unexpected Discovery: My USB Drive Returned with Trojan Files
Hello everyone,
I want to share a rather unsettling experience I had a few years back involving a break-in at my home in the UK. During the aftermath, I provided the police with footage from my security cameras stored on a USB drive, hoping it would aid in their investigation. After several months, I received the USB drive back, but I didn’t think much of it at the time and set it aside.
Recently, while sifting through some miscellaneous USB sticks and memory cards, I stumbled upon that same drive. Curious to review the footage, I clicked on one of the files, only for Windows Defender to spring into action. It flagged the file as a trojan, preventing me from opening it. A closer inspection revealed something alarming: instead of the usual VLC player icon, the files had generic yellow folder icons. Not only that, but I noticed they were renamed to match the original filenames I had used, appearing organized in the same folder structure.
This experience raised several questions for me. Has anyone encountered anything similar? What could this mean for the integrity of the investigation? It’s troubling to think that the officer handling my case could have been working on an infected computer, potentially compromising the contents of my USB drive.
Adding to my frustration is the fact that I previously formatted the drive, which means all original data is now lost.
If anyone has insights or has experienced something like this before, I would greatly appreciate your thoughts. It’s a reminder to be vigilant about digital security, even in what we assume are safe transactions.
Thank you for reading.
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