Will Stuxnet kill portable apps??

I have been reading with interest the continuing saga of the Stuxnet worm. It seems the new transmission method of choice is spreading Worms/Trojans using Flash drives. I was infected from an Apple with the Boot13 worm and I was frankly surprised at how easily it got me. I was also surprised how hard it was to remove.

I love Portable Apps. I do not feel comfortable installing software on my work computer and Portable Apps gives me the tools I needs. I have to wonder if the Stuxnet worm will be the straw that breaks the camel's back and gets PCs locked down. Every time IT walks down the hall, I wait for it.

See excerpted cnet story below:
The attack involves several components: a worm that spreads via USB drives and exploits a previously unknown vulnerability in Windows and a Trojan backdoor that looks to see if an infected machine is running a specific type of software created by Siemens used in control systems including industrial manufacturing, utilities and even nuclear powered aircraft carriers.

The worm, dubbed Stuxnet, propagates by exploiting a hole in all versions of Windows in the code that processes shortcut files, ending in ".lnk," according to a Microsoft Malware Protection Center blog post. Merely browsing to the removable media drive using an application that displays shortcut icons, such as Windows Explorer, will run the malware without the user clicking on the icons. The worm infects USB drives or other removable storage devices that are subsequently connected to the infected machine. Those USB drives then infect other machines much like the common cold is spread by infected people sneezing into their hands and then touching door knobs that others are handling.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20011159-245.html#ixzz10qXG7ZoV

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