5 steps to effectively protect against USB virus

Do you have a USB? Even if you only use it occasionally to copy documents between machines, it is unlikely that once your USB device has infected the virus.

Perhaps there is not much to say about the nuisances you encounter with these obnoxious viruses. You can, however, limit these uninvited guests to your USB device.

Viruses transmitted via USB have become so popular today in Vietnam, especially when the USB portable drive has become a separate object of the vast majority of students, students and office workers . Viruses This automatically enters when you plug your USB device into a computer that is infected with a virus.

And every time this USB is inserted into another computer, the virus takes advantage of your habit of opening up every time you double-click the USB drive icon in My Computer to hack. Here they continue to clone and spread themselves with many lines. And of course the next victim will be other USB devices plugged into the device.

Why can viruses spread via USB? This is because the virus copies itself onto USB, and creates an Autorun.inf file to enable the drive's Autoplay feature. Every time you click to open the USB, you will accidentally run the virus itself. In addition, they cleverly set their hidden properties to avoid detection.

How can I detect if a USB virus has a virus? If you normally open the USB by clicking the left mouse button on the USB icon at My Computer, please change that habit. Try right-clicking on the USB drive icon, if you see that the Autoplay line is highlighted in the top position, which means that 90% of the USB has been infected with the virus. Because normally, the bold text must be Open or Explorer instead of Autoplay .

This can also be applied to hard drives, some viruses after spreading into the computer also infect Autoplay of the hard drive. The process of infecting the hard drive causes the virus to still be activated without having to copy it into Start Up, a place that is regularly checked. However, USB viruses often put themselves in a hidden state, so it's best to regularly view hidden files by going to My Computer -> Tools -> Folder Options . -> View -> Select Show hidden files and folders and remove the Hide protected system files .

It's still not enough to protect yourself like that. It's best to protect your USB from virus infection. You can do it yourself even if you are not a computer savvy person.

Indeed, if the virus infects your USB and tries to trick you into running it via USB's Autoplay feature, why not try to trick it. Note that any USB virus creates an autorun.inf file, so you can create the autorun.inf file in your USB. Make sure that only this step you are able to "bypass" quite a few USB viruses.

But it seems that it is not enough, you need to ban smarter viruses to overwrite this file. This you can absolutely do easily with USB if you transfer the file system of USB to NTFS and set the right to prohibit overwriting the autorun.inf file.

Of course transferring files to NTFS, your USB will not work on Windows 98 / ME, but Windows 98 / ME does not automatically receive your USB, and the current Windows 98 / ME It's a bit rare.

When you are ready, start protecting your USB device through simple operations with Windows XP in 5 steps:

Step 1 : Determine what your USB drive name is by clicking on My Computer and specifying the USB drive. For example, your USB drive is drive E: and the label is STORAGE

Step 2 : Convert the file system to NTFS by Click Start -> Run , then type convert: / FS: NTFS . For example, you will have to type convert E: / FS: NTFS . Note, if your USB drive has MP3 recording and listening function, skip this step. If not, your music player software may not be able to play MP3 files.

Step 3 : Create an autorun.inf file with any content, even leave it blank and copy to the root directory of your USB drive.

Step 4 : Right-click the autorun.inf file you just created and select the attribute for this file to be read-only , you can also choose to hide .

Step 5 : Prohibit all access to the autorun.inf file you just created by clicking Start -> Run , then typing cacls autorun.inf / D Everyone . For example, you will type cacls E: autorun.inf / D Everyone

Of course, it can't be said that it is safe for all kinds of USB viruses, but this method also helps your USB device to be safe before the majority of USB-based transmitters today. And most of all, install a reliable antivirus program on your device, especially with automatic updates. Good luck.

Hainan