Should I be leery of buying off brand flash drives or just buying flash drives off of ebay

[G+_610GARAGE]

Should I be leery of buying off brand flash drives or just buying flash drives off of ebay. I am tired of never having a flash drive when I need one, so I was going to buy a lot of 10 new sandisk flash drives on ebay. But then I wondered how much of a risk it is. Could somone load low level malicious software onto the flash drives and infect every computer I own?

 

This question is sounding vaguely familiar. Was it covered on Know How before?

[G+_M. L. Hunt]

Flash drives are so cheap these days. Why risk buying from some sketchy eBay seller, or some brand you've never heard of, when you needn't pay much more to get a reputable brand drive from a known seller?

[G+_Arcturus Lancaster]

Would not buy from unknown seller. Also risk of getting small drive that shows as a large one

[G+_Michael Belew]

Be very wary of Amazon Flash Drive venders...

[G+_Taylor Graham]

Just get something cheap that's still sealed. If it were from a brand i even kind of recognize (even someone like Team), but was still packaged, i wouldnt worry a bit. Look for some of the cheaper, somewhat off-brand (but still established) flash drives on amazon or newegg. They come pretty cheap.

[G+_Michael Belew]

That's from Amazon there are lots of non-amazon Venders...

[G+_Michael Belew]

http://www.amazon.com/SANTIN-128GB-Class-Memory-Adapter/dp/B01ALMTKO8/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1453838709&sr=1-5&keywords=128gb+micro+sd+card

 

Like that...

[G+_Ben Reese]

Michael Belew I wouldn't buy that anyhow. No Prime and only 1 review with 2 stars.

 

... But I get what you're saying.

[G+_Michael Belew]

There are others with obviously forged reviews at a quick glance look OK but are not...

[G+_610GARAGE]

Thanks for the feedback. I pretty much had the same argument with myself. On the one hand, if  there a reptile seller, they can't be awful and still sell there products. And if the flash drives are a known manufacture and sealed, chances are that there are good.

 

But there's is a risk. Any good malicious software will go unnoticed until it's too late if ever. it's 2 dollars cheaper per flash drive on ebay if you buy 10. But is that 2 dollars worth the risk?

 

I may just buy the  sandisks off of amazon. This is for business use and I wouldn't want a customer data breach. Not that we hold anything of any great value, but data should always be secure.

[G+_610GARAGE]

Wayne Hobbins $30 bucks. If I didn't keep losing the stupid things I would. The sad part is they're all on my desk.... someplace. :)

[G+_Michael Belew]

We have a couple of these at work....

 

http://www.apricorn.com/aegis-secure-key.html

 

If you don't know the PIN no way to get recover data.

Use these to store Credit Card numbers, much easier than encrypting the file server...

[G+_Ben Reese]

I've been pretty happy with this one: PNY Turbo 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive - P-FD32GTBOP-GE https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FDUHD2K/

 

Enough that I just bought a second for the Fire TV. I haven't benchmarks it or anything, but does what I need.

[G+_610GARAGE]

Ben Reese That 3 pack, 16 gig don't look bad. Thanks.