US Officials Plugged in Alleged Spy’s Malware USB into Their PCs

What Do You Do With a Suspicious USB Drive?

Remember that Chinese national who was arrested at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-lago resort two weeks ago? The one who has a USB drive with “malicious malware”.

Her name is Yujing Zhang and as it turns out, the US Secret Service who arrested her took that USB and plugged it into their computer. Inadvertently doing the alleged spy’s job for her, if the charges are true.

We know this now because Secret Service agent Samuel Ivanovich, who interviewed Zhang on the day of her arrest, said so at the hearing.

According to Ivanovich, another agent put the woman’s thumb drive into his computer. After which it immediately began to install files, which the secret service personnel describe as “very out-of-the-ordinary” and something they had never seen happen before.

What was the Malware USB For?

For now investigators are still trying to determine the nature of the malware. It is not clear how much of a threat the malware posed and what its function is. It could be either for gathering information at President Trump’s club, or it could be for sabotaging an existing network.

Secret Service head Randolph “Tex” Alles has since been fired by President Trump. Although according to sources at the Miami Herald, these are for reasons not related to the Mar-a-lago incident. The secret service itself lays the blame on Mar-a-lago’s lack of security.