I know that there is encription software for preventing unwanted access to files on a flash drive or PHDD. I want to know How to prevent a flash drive from being infected with malware and viuruses. If useing a flash drive on a compermised system say a Liburary sys, School sys etc. Some systems may not have adiquite virus protection.
Does anyone know of a way to do this as it would be good to know.
Portable USB WriteProtector mentioned here https://portableapps.com/node/18138 seems what I am looking for. It is good in theory but it doesent stack up.
Visit the Community page
Join our forums
Subscribe to our email newsletter
Subscribe with RSS
Follow us on BlueSky
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on LinkedIn
Follow us on Mastodon
Follow us on Twitter
There's only one way: use a pendrive with hardware write protection. No software can really help you. Jimbo said why: Crapware can get to your pendrive before you run your program. Or you may be disallowed to run it at all.
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." Asimov
I tried to find such a pendrive but no shop was offering it. Do you know of brands or examples who might have this feature ?
Nope. I've had one years ago. Search better, they surely exist.
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." Asimov
thought I dont know why. Earlier , that means some 4-5 years ago, this was not so exotic to have small switch on the stick being the write protect.
Also all my disk on modules I use at work have it, but they are IDE interface.
Assume the present day sticks have no such switch for cost reasons only.
But then, write protected stick can be used to carry data, but portable apps will often fail to work, having no place then to write their local data.
That sticks are kind of big danger and help spreading of this and that like it was with floppy disks before is a fact. Even worse: finaly we got used to the short scan of the floppy after insertion at least by the local antivirus, but to scan our 16gb sticks today? how should this take place?
That is why many responsible admins get more and more scared when people use usb sticks in their nets.
And since I have some sticks having strange information and software in theri controllers, why should there be not serious malware in the controller even before you unpack it from the blister first time?
And if the admin blocks all devices declaring themselves as mass storage or so, why should not the controller report itself as "human interface device" (mouse) and bypass so the blockade?
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
I have bought a very fast flashdrive with hardware write protection Buffalo 4GB Firestix RUF 2R
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis .." Friday Next -
"May The Schwartz be with You!" Yogurt the Yoda
In my opinion after looking into this, I find the USB WriteProtector software to be a waste of time. It's more trouble than its worth.
First off, it won't work on a limited account, so that means you won't be able to use it on most library, school, and internet cafe computers.
Second, all the program does is add a reg entry to prevent writing to the flash drive. But here's the kicker, if you forget to disable the write protection, the next flash drive you plug in your computer will also be write protected and every other drive after that too. So you can cause real problems for some if you forget to disable the write protection after your done.
I'm discovering there are better options available, but no freeware that is really that great outside of ClamWin or Dr Web, and Dr Web requires you to redownload the program every time you want to update the virus definitions. But neither will protect the flash drive in real time. You'll have to do manual scans.
How about using a SD memory card with a card reader? They come with a write protect switch.