A lesson was learned in May 2010 when IBM purchased imprinted USB flash drives for a conference in Australia. The schedule was tight so they asked their supplier to pre-load data on the drives, but this proved to be a costly mistake. The drives were handed out to attendees at the conference. Oh, yes, by the way, it was a security conference. The auto-loading files on the flash drives contained a virus which caused extensive damage in computers in which they were inserted. IBM scrambled to provide a remedy, but it was not a simple fix, requiring re-installation of the operating system.

Think somebody should have checked them? A trustworthy supplier would have done so.

One of the main advantages of custom flash drives is the ability to have branding both inside and out. Pdf's, mp3's, spreadsheets, PowerPoint and Word docs are commonly added to flash drives used for promotional purposes. They are a most effective means of distributing sales promotional material. Self-executing files can increase the impact of the presentation, but do carry perhaps a slightly greater risk of malware or other contamination. The safest thing to do is to avoid unknown overseas vendors who deal only over the internet. Be sure to know who you're dealing with. Better safe than sorry.