Sunday, March 08, 2015
Why USB flash drives with mystery files are being cemented into walls of major cities
www.theplaidzebra.com: Dead Drops is essentially an offline peer-to-peer network in which participants are encouraged to upload and download files from strangers in an open network. A USB drive is cemented into some public space—the side of a building, a street corner, the underside of a park bench—and people are free to utilize it however they’d like. Everyone is welcome to take part, either by installing their own Dead Drop or by uploading/downloading shareable content. A comprehensive list of Dead Drop spaces can be found here, as well as a handy video guide Aram created to guide novice Dead Droppers into creating their first peer-to-peer network drive.
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6 comments:
I actually read about this project when it first started in 2010. I'm not sure how practical the Dead Drops are for anything useful, but as a concept piece, I think it is hilariously awesome. It would be cool if there was a way to log how many users accessed each drop. Watching this video kind of makes me want to investigate the dead drop in Pittsburgh. It looks like there is one on Penn Avenue north of Squirrel Hill, which is pretty darn cool. It is amazing how much this experiment/art project has taken off since I first read about it. The article said there were over 1400 drops installed. Seems like it might be hard to plug some laptops in without a USB extension cable, but maybe that's part of what I think is hilarious, to sidle up to a brick wall and lean against it with your laptop plugged in. Certainly would be interested to see what kind of files were on some of the flash drives, if anything.
I think this is a very cool idea which could potentially go very badly. I love that people like to share things with each other and this feels like a sort of Indian Jones adventure to find the next USB drive that’s imbedded in a wall somewhere in a city. It would be awfully fun to go around the city searching for these with friends and getting all kinds of information from the said USBs. But, I also think that some people would ruin/take advantage of people plugging in random USBs into their computers. Hacker could put viruses on the USB drives and download your personal information that way. It’s been done before countless times where USBs are dropped on the floor somewhere, and someone picks it up and plugs it in. Then they’re computer is hacked just by plugging in a USB from the floor. I admit, I am very concerned with internet security, and so that was the first thing to pop into my head, but I also really do hope that those who are putting USB drives into the walls are not the kind of people who would hack another person.
I think this is a very cool idea which could potentially go very badly. I love that people like to share things with each other and this feels like a sort of Indian Jones adventure to find the next USB drive that’s imbedded in a wall somewhere in a city. It would be awfully fun to go around the city searching for these with friends and getting all kinds of information from the said USBs. But, I also think that some people would ruin/take advantage of people plugging in random USBs into their computers. Hacker could put viruses on the USB drives and download your personal information that way. It’s been done before countless times where USBs are dropped on the floor somewhere, and someone picks it up and plugs it in. Then they’re computer is hacked just by plugging in a USB from the floor. I admit, I am very concerned with internet security, and so that was the first thing to pop into my head, but I also really do hope that those who are putting USB drives into the walls are not the kind of people who would hack another person.
After watching the video, my first thought was " This could go horribly, horribly wrong." There are people who are vindictive, and people who are idealistic and naive, and this is a project that puts these two together into a virus filled sandwich. I like the concept-- it's like a geocache for the modern city. However, the anonymous nature of file sharing is a breeding ground for criminal activity. While I am enamored of the concept, I definitely would not feel safe putting my devices at that risk. In an ideal world, were antagonistic people don't exist, I think this is a magical idea. I love the idea of treasure maps and notes left for strangers, creating and underground subculture of art and ideas. But as much as I would like to, I cannot endorse this as an idea. The creator did not seem to have any plan in place to prevent cybercrime in his project, trusting that people would "do the right thing." While I wish I could have that kind of trust, technological platforms feel like a safe and anonymous place for criminals. I don't think it can be very popular with that kind of a rick involved.
This is one of the weirdest things I have ever seen. If it is a digital file why are we sharing it in such a non digital way? couldn't the person putting these USBs in walls just post the files to a website? Also, I feel like this is really dangerus. You have no clue what going to happen when you plug your computer into a random USB. I learned at C@CM never to do that. However, I also think this is a really cool idea in the way it juxtaposes digital files and manual sharing. I wonder how many people have went out in search of these USB walls and actually used them. I, if I had the time, would probably go in search of these walls but not actually use them. It is pretty cool though that this is making a community of file shares who are not just sitting behind their computer screens.
I think that this is a really amazing and scary idea. Dead Drops make a huge statement about the rights of people to share information and files that they have obtained legally. It is also cool to see a disk in the park and wonder what types of files people have left behind to share. Its scary because if Computing @ Carnegie Mellon taught me anything, it is that I should never put random flash drives in my computer because that is exactly how you get a virus. It is also unnerving because while most people just want to share art, music, movies and the like, there are some sick people out there, who would think twice about taking advantage of the system and using it to share any number of illegal or depraved files. I hope that the useful and artistic aspects of the system out weigh the bad. I look forward to seeing these around back home in New York.
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