FlashPatch
Henry Corrigan-Gibbs, Jay Chen · 2013
We present the design and implementation of FlashPatch, a system which exploits the ubiquity of USB drives---normally a vector for virus transmission---to facilitate the distribution of software updates. Our system spreads software updates to offline machines by having the updates "piggy-back" on the existing circulation of USB flash drives. We discuss the techncial and ethical issues involved in the deployment of such a system and we describe the results of preliminary field testing in rural Ghana.