Protect Your PC From USB Threats

Not every body can keep their PC's clean all the time, some have a certain passion for attracting viruses. The major culprit here is the USB drives. The innocent looking USB (armed with viruses obviously) can take down most PC's with ease and can also steal all your private data. But with a few precautions you can protect your system from 99% of all USB attacks.

Good Old Anti-Virus 

First and foremost install an anti-virus. I would prefer Avast owing to the fact that it's light and updating it is a breeze. After installing the anti-virus, update it. An updated anti-virus can detect almost 95% viruses, malware etc,therefore I would suggest you update your anti-virus at least once in a week.

Disable Autorun 

Most USB viruses are triggered by Autorun. You'll have no time to respond while a virus attacks you, if you have Autorun enabled. Disabling autorun will help you  buy some precious time. To disable autorun in windows, First of all launch the Run dialogue box by pressing Win + R, then type Gpedit.msc and press Enter. The Local Group Policy Editor will be launched. Now navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components. Locate the Turn off Autoplay option, then right click it and choose the Edit option. On the next step, click the Enabled option. Click the Apply button to complete the configuration. Make sure to select All drives from the drop down menu of the Turn off Autoplay on option,to disable Autorun on all drives.

Disabling Auto-run wouldn't ensure you complete safety. For that you'll need a software like USB Disk Security, although not free it is certainly worth it.  Install it and stop worrying about the auto-run monster hiding in the thumb drive.


USB Dummy
This simple program called USB Dummy protect your thumb-drive from virus attacks. Now the question is how? Although not an Anti-virus, this nifty little program stops your files from being infected. It creates a large junk file in your thumb drive and fills all the empty space left in it. Execute the program after copying files onto the thumb drive. This way none of the virus can infect your files or spread inside it (at least that's what they say.

Clamwin

Clamwin a portable Anti-virus which you can carry around in your USB device. You can scan your files and also the computer you connect it to. The anti-viruses of effected computer are always spectators and are of no use. But beware Clamwin won't be a complete protection package, as it's just a temporary solution and can't match other non-portable Anti-virus programs.



Linux Is Safer !

If none of the above works for you, don't worry, move to Linux. Linux is much safer than Windows and  also none of the Virus work in Linux. If you don't want to move to Linux completely, set up a dual boot system. Install a small Linux distro like 'Damn Small Linux', that way you can switch back and forth whenever you want. Linux is much safer than Windows and if you are always plagued by viruses, I would suggest you move to Linux fast.