I found this program called Portable USB WriteProtector and was wondering if anyone has heard of it before and if it might be worth running to help prevent my flash drive from being infected with malware, should I run it on a library or internet cafe computer etc.?
I found it at SoftPedia.com which scan all their files for viruses, but I also uploaded it to VirusTotal as well and not one AV there detected it as a virus.
Here the link at SoftPedia http://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTABLE-SOFTWARE/Security/Encrypting/Windo...
One thing I would like to know, if anyone has tried it, is can I use it on a non admin account or must you be logged on as admin to use it? Because it does look like a useful alternative to having an actual physical write protect switch on a flash drive, which sadly I don't have.
Thanks very much for any help with this.
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the exact sequence of events would be....
Malware on a machine runs as system or admin, and would theoretically be able to circumvent any software write protection anyway, but in this case, you run the risk of shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted. By the time you can run it, the damage could very easily have already been done.
But it could still protect you from some attacks, just don't trust it implicitly
perfect logic and stright forward
Also I think when someone is trying to use any portable apps in fact, mostly will need no write protection, where after all should the poor Thunderbird write its mails to if its stick drive is blocked by some means?
So for data yes, for apps probably not very useful.
I have one old drive with physical switch, this I use for keeping antivirus data whereby the scanner itself starts from boot CD. This is useful I think, when I am called to already probably somehow infected system.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
Thanks for the help. I just found out through testing the app on a limited account that it does appear to require admin access to run properly.
For one thing if I enable the write protect on an admin account and then go to a limited account I couldn't turn off the write protection, so really not too useful.
One other thing I noticed is once you start the write protection, it will remain on the next time you plug your flash drive in, so the scenario mentioned by Jimbo wouldn't always apply, if you activated the write protection first. I did try it on a second computer and the write protection did still appear to be active when I plugged in the flash drive.
Overall, I would say it turns out it's not that useful after all, but thanks to you both for the assistance.
I guess I'm back to having no protection against a malware infection on my flash drive should I want to run it on a library, school or cafe computer.