Councils for novice users. Antivirus for a USB flash drive, or How to protect removable media from malware. Tips for beginners Download antivirus software for removable media

Antivirus for a USB flash drive- a necessary thing, since today almost everyone has a flash drive.

Often, data that is important for us are stored on flash drives: coursework, diploma, reports, photos, etc. And getting viruses on a flash device does not bode well. Just imagine that one small virus deleted your quarterly report, on which you worked all night, or your flash drive stopped opening at all ...

Few people know that the flash drive familiar to everyone is the second largest distributor of computer viruses, after the Internet!

For example: you stayed with a friend and casually dropped an interesting film from him. Come home, connect a flash drive to your computer and the virus has started walking around your system, infecting everything around, and then you think: why the computer is stupid or where important documents have gone.

Antivirus for a flash drive is an important attribute of your drive

On the usb drive itself, the virus is not active and, as a result, is practically invisible. At

copying an infected file (the same movie), not every antivirus will detect this "villain", and then it will be too late ...

Antivirus for a USB flash drive will help to avoid such bitter learning. One of the best programs in this segment is.

This product is installed directly on a USB flash drive and protects it from viruses from an infected computer.

Installation

Let's take a closer look at the installation of this utility.

We connect the flash device to the USB port of the computer. Launch the installation of trustport usb antivirus. In the first window, select a language convenient for us (1):

Press the "Install" button and the antivirus for the flash drive starts its installation:

After installation, it is worth ticking the box "Launch Trustport tray" (3):

If you did everything correctly, you will see the antivirus for the flash drive minimized to the tray (4):

We remove our flash device and plug it back in, the flash drive icon changes to a green heart (5):

This means that our flesh drive is reliably protected from insidious viruses. If we go to it, we will see the installed files of the antivirus itself (6):

Launch

The program automatically starts when you connect your flash drive to your computer, you can see it by the tray icon (4). If this does not happen, then go to the usb-flash drive and open the program launch shortcut (7). In rare cases, there may be a conflict between trustport usb antivirus and the main antivirus of the computer. If this happens - temporarily disable the main antivirus - it should help :-).

That's all, the antivirus for the flash drive is installed and your USB device is protected.

PS: If you need more serious protection, you can still install it.

They get into the operating system not via the Internet or e-mail, but using a regular flash drive. Moreover, most often the owner of this removable media does not even know that his flash media is infected with one or more viruses. But how do you protect your devices from viruses? Is there an optimal antivirus for a flash drive or another reliable way to protect removable media? You will find answers to these questions in the continuation of this article.

First, let's define what exactly we are going to protect. After all, you can find a good antivirus for a USB flash drive that can prevent infection of your removable disk, but which cannot cope with more powerful threats that attack your computer or laptop. Therefore, you need to understand that a home PC in any case should be equipped with a good firewall and high-quality antivirus software, which can become reliable protection against any spyware and virus programs. Antivirus should be written to a USB flash drive only if you use it quite often in public places (in libraries, the university, various computers may not be properly protected) and are afraid that you may "infect" your portable device.

One of the best tools for protecting removable media is a free utility called Antirun. This program will not only help protect your computer from the penetration of various malicious viruses, but also save your flash drive from getting on it with various "network garbage".

Another popular program for protecting removable drives among advanced users is the USB Disk Security utility (at the time of this writing, its latest version is 5.0.0.76). This software, which occupies only one megabyte, is a compact analogue of a real full-fledged antivirus that can scan removable media and delete infected files from it.

Another option for protecting any removable media connected to a computer using a USB port (it can be not only a USB flash drive, but also a memory card of a digital camera or mobile phone, an MP3 player and other equipment) is to prohibit the ability to write any data to this media without user confirmation for this action. This option will allow you to fully control what, where and when was recorded on your media in order to avoid being recorded on it, and then you will not need any antivirus for flash drives.

In order to protect your computer from possible threats from removable media, experienced users recommend updating the anti-virus database as often as possible and from time to time completely scan all hard drives and removable media that you regularly use. Antivirus for a flash drive, on the other hand, should be installed only if the computer or laptop for some reason remained without reliable antivirus protection for some time. If this computer has access to the Internet, then it can be scanned for the presence of third-party and potentially dangerous programs even online - this service is now offered by many leading antivirus vendors for free.

Do not forget that if you carelessly and carelessly handle your computer and removable media, no antivirus for a flash drive or PC will help you from malicious software. If you regularly check the operating system and its resources using specialized programs, the likelihood of infecting your computer is practically reduced to zero. The main thing is not to forget to fulfill the simplest requirements for protecting your PC and you will not have to go to repair shops after any breakdowns associated with viruses and other malicious programs.

USB Disk Security Is a free application designed to provide complete protection against all kinds of malware spread via removable USB drives. The application works with external hard drives, memory cards, digital cameras, flash drives, as well as with other devices that can be connected via USB. Disk Security is based on a special technology for detecting threats; As an anti-virus program, the utility is able to work in stealth mode, only letting it know about its existence only in case of detection of malware.

Basically, the infection of a personal computer with viruses occurs at the time of using the global Internet, a little less often it happens during the installation of a dubious or untested program. An infected file can also enter the PC through the most ordinary flash drive.

When an infected flash drive is connected to a personal computer, malicious software penetrates the hard drive, and most importantly, it happens so quickly that the installed antivirus programs do not always have time to react in time. Especially for such cases, it is necessary to use programs that can easily cope with this type of threat. Today Disk Security is one of the best programs to protect against infected files spread via USB drives.

If viruses are detected, the application, depending on the settings, will remove or block them, thereby preventing them from starting automatically. In addition, the utility is able to restore the system after it has been infected with malware, clear the hard drive of temporary files, prohibit copying files from the computer's hard drive, check URLs, completely block USB ports, manage startup, and force scan hard drives.

The program is equipped with a convenient and simple user interface in Russian. The control panel is located on the left side of the working window and consists of seven main items. The following sections deserve special attention: data protection, scanning and USB shield.

The last section is responsible for displaying a complete report on all detected threats. You also need to take into account that the utility automatically removes any malicious application by default. So in order to avoid deleting important documents, it is better to disable this option, for example, after deleting the boot file, your USB drive will not be able to start. After disabling, Disk Security will act as follows - it will automatically move the infected file to quarantine or simply mark it.

In addition to the tools for automatic checking of flash media, the "Scanning" section is equipped with a vaccination function. Vaccination can be carried out both on removable media and on the personal computer itself. At the same time, a special file is created on the USB flash drive or hard drive, which prohibits the launch of some malicious applications. Vaccination can be turned off if desired.

The "Data Protection" section is able to provide devices with higher protection, for example, you can prohibit the movement of data from a computer to a memory card or even block access to a PC via a USB port. To close access, you will need to restart the computer, only after that the settings will take effect.

Key features of USB Disk Security:

Performs a more thorough scan of external drives. If malware is detected, they are either deleted or quarantined.
The presence of a resident antivirus scanner that is triggered when a new USB drive is connected. Without making changes to the settings, the infected files will be automatically deleted.
If necessary, you can completely disable automatic start on the PC.
When using the utility, it is possible to view the contents without the risk of infecting a personal computer.
Sites are checked for infected applications. The following services are used during the scan: Trend Micro, McAfee, VirusTotal, Symantec, and Google.
The linkzb.com search engine provides an opportunity to safely use the Internet.
The application is able to prevent unauthorized connection of a USB drive to a PC.
Blocking the copying of unauthorized data to USB is performed using the Access Control tool.
Using the system for cleaning temporary files, if the virus is located in temporary directories, it will be removed immediately.
You can set a password in the program settings.
Full control over applications included in autostart.
The presence of a built-in system for restoring important directories in the registry that have been affected by malware.
Downloading Disk Security is completely free.
Works on Windows XP, 7 and 8.
An automatic check for updates is performed.
The application does not need to update its virus databases, as it does not work like a standard anti-virus program.
Due to its small size, the utility can install even a weak personal computer.
Full compatibility with many modern antivirus programs is seen.
Using a multilingual interface, 12 languages are available in total.

USB Disk Security is a simple and effective program to provide complete protection against malware spread via removable media.

Along with cloud services, we very often use regular flash cards to store photos and movies. We connect it to other people's computers and laptops, which carries the risk of infection with viruses and other malicious programs. The statistics are relentless: every 10th computer is a direct threat. The question arises: how to protect a USB flash drive from viruses without reducing the comfort of its use?

Windows standard methods

Most often, infection of a USB drive occurs through a file autorun.inf... This file serves a very specific purpose: to automatically launch or install applications from a flash card to a computer. It is hidden, but it is present on any flash drive. As in other areas of life, early protection and prevention is better than laborious treatment, which does not guarantee a 100% positive result. Therefore, the main task is to make the autorun.inf file invulnerable to attempts to infect it.

Extremely important: the methods described below will protect the media from malware that uses USB-flash as a means of distributing itself (they are the ones who tend to overwrite the mentioned file in their own way). Viruses, trojans and other troubles in program installers will not go anywhere: use antivirus software to detect them.

Disable startup

This is a method of protecting the computer itself from a possibly already infected flash drive, both from yours and from someone else's. The easiest way to do this is to follow the steps below. For Windows 7:

Press the key combination Win + R.
In the "Run" window that opens, enter gpedit.msc and click on OK.

Click on the "Allow" when a message appears about the need to perform an action on behalf of the administrator. You may also need to enter an administrator password.
In the Local Group Policy Editor window that appears, expand the "Computer Configuration" list and then "Administrative Templates".
Select the item "All parameters".

In the list that opens, right-click on the line "Disable autorun" with the right mouse button.

Click "Change", make the item "Enable" active, the value "All devices" should be set below.

Click "Apply".

Please note: in some versions of Windows (8,8.1) the sequence in steps 4-6 may differ slightly and look like this: "Computer Configuration" - "Administrative Templates" - "Windows Components" - "Autorun Policies" - "Disable Autorun".

A reboot may be required for the changes to take effect. That's all - now any flash drives connected to the computer will not start automatically on it and will not cause harm without the user's participation.

Autorun file protection

Now there is a way to protect the flash drive itself from malware that spreads using physical media. We are talking about the very autorun.inf.

In the good old days, it was enough to create an empty write-protected file on a USB-drive. That is, with read-only rights. Today, such measures are not enough. But the essence of the actions is similar. Create a special file on a USB flash drive checked by a good antivirus, making sure that there are no dangers. Open a regular notepad and copy these lines into it:

attrib -S -H -R -A autorun. *
del autorun. *
attrib -S -H -R -A recycler
rd "\\? \% ~ d0 \ recycler \" / s / q
attrib -S -H -R -A recycled
rd "\\? \% ~ d0 \ recycled \" / s / q
mkdir "\\? \% ~ d0 \ AUTORUN.INF \ LPT3"
attrib + S + H + R + A% ~ d0 \ AUTORUN.INF / s / d
mkdir "\\? \% ~ d0 \ RECYCLED \ LPT3"
attrib + S + H + R + A% ~ d0 \ RECYCLED / s / d
mkdir "\\? \% ~ d0 \ RECYCLER \ LPT3"
attrib + S + H + R + A% ~ d0 \ RECYCLER / s / dattrib -s -h -r autorun. *
del autorun. *
mkdir% ~ d0AUTORUN.INF
mkdir "?% ~ d0AUTORUN.INF ..."
attrib + s + h% ~ d0AUTORUN.INF

Save the result to a USB flash drive by naming the file locker.bat... After the dot there is an extension, it is extremely important and should look exactly like .bat... Open the USB flash drive through the explorer and run the newly created file with the usual double click of the mouse. It will execute as a small program and create a protected AUTORUN.INF folder.

What does it do? By inserting a USB Flash Drive into an infected computer, there is no need to be afraid of the viruses on it that spread via USB. Such a virus will rush to overwrite the autorun.inf file, but it does not exist! Instead, a folder, and even protected.

It is important: viruses can write themselves to other places on the USB flash drive by changing other files. Therefore, when inserting it into a computer, check with an antivirus before opening it.

Radical way

If you have to connect a USB flash drive to someone else's computer, but only to drop files from it, the option of switching the file system to read-only mode is suitable. This is an effective, but, in most cases, inconvenient way, making the "send to removable disk" option and similar operations inoperative.

In order to apply this method, you must:

Format USB media to NTFS file system. Please note: all data from the flash drive will be deleted! If your flash drive is already in NTFS, skip this step.

Write down all the necessary data, put them in one folder.
Open the properties of the flash drive (right-click) and in the "Security" tab click on the "Change" button.

In the "Allow" column, uncheck all the boxes except for the items "List of folder contents" and "Read".
Click "OK".

Now not a single virus will be able to register on the USB flash drive.

Using third-party programs

You can also protect USB media from malware using specially designed programs. For example, Panda USB Vaccine. This free utility is specially designed to protect removable media.

After downloading and running it, connect the USB flash drive that you want to protect to the computer. Follow 2 easy steps:

In the drop-down menu, install the required USB-drive;
Click on the Vaccinate USB button.

And that's it! The flash drive is protected from overwriting the autorun file. In fact, the program simply disables autorun, but it does so by pressing a couple of buttons in a user-friendly interface.

Output

Unfortunately, you cannot 100% protect your flash drive from viruses. The measures described in the article only prevent the automatic penetration of malware first onto a USB drive, and then onto your PC. Always keep your antivirus up to date and scan your flash drives before opening them in File Explorer.

Every storage medium can become a haven for malware. As a result, you can lose valuable data and risk infecting your other devices. Therefore, it is best to get rid of all this as soon as possible. How you can check and remove viruses from the drive, we will consider further.

Let's start by looking at the symptoms of viruses on a removable storage device. The main ones are:

files with the name appeared "Autorun";
files with the extension ".Tmp";
suspicious folders appeared, for example, "TEMP" or RECYCLER;
the flash drive stopped opening;
the drive is not ejected;
files are missing or turned into shortcuts.

In general, the media begins to be detected by the computer more slowly, information is copied to it for a longer time, and sometimes errors may occur. In most cases, it will not be superfluous to check the computer to which the flash drive is connected.

To combat malware, it is most advisable to use antivirus software. These can be powerful combo products or simple, highly targeted utilities. We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the best options.

Method 1: Avast! Free Antivirus

Today this antivirus is considered one of the most popular in the world, and it suits our purposes perfectly. To use Avast! Free Antivirus to clean your USB drive, please do as follows:

You can also scan the medium through the context menu. To do this, follow a series of simple steps:
Right-click on the flash drive and select "Scan".

By default, Avast is configured to automatically detect viruses on connected devices. The status of this function can be checked in the following way:

Settings / Components / File System Screen Settings / Scan On Connection

Method 2: ESET NOD32 Smart Security

And this is an option with less load on the system, so it is often installed on laptops and tablets. To scan a removable storage device for viruses with ESET NOD32 Smart Security, do the following:

You can set up automatic scanning when a USB flash drive is connected. To do this, follow the path

Settings / Advanced settings / Virus protection / Removable media

Method 3: Kaspersky Free

The free version of this antivirus will help you quickly scan any media. Instructions for using it to complete our task are as follows:

Don't forget to set up automatic scanning. To do this, go to settings and click "Examination"... Here you can set the action of the antivirus when connecting a USB flash drive to a PC.

For reliable operation of each anti-virus, do not forget about virus database updates. They usually happen automatically, but inexperienced users can cancel them or disable them altogether. This is highly discouraged.

Method 4: Malwarebytes

One of the best utilities for detecting viruses on a computer and portable devices. The instructions for using Malwarebytes are as follows:

You can go the other way, simply by right-clicking on the flash drive in "Computer" and choosing "Scan Malwarebytes".