Very often, various computer viruses get into the operating system not via the Internet or email, but using a regular flash drive. Moreover, most often the owner of this removable media does not even know that its flash media is infected with one or more viruses. But how to 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.
To begin, let's decide what exactly we are going to protect. After all, you can find a good antivirus for a flash drive that can prevent the infection of your removable disk, but which cannot cope with more powerful threats that attack a computer or laptop. Therefore, you must understand that in any case, a home PC should be equipped with a good firewall and high-quality anti-virus software, which can become reliable protection against any spyware and virus programs. Antivirus on a USB flash drive should be recorded only if you use it quite often in public places (in libraries, universities, various computers may not be properly protected) and fear that you might “infect” your portable device.
One of the best antivirus programs designed to protect removable media is a free utility called “Antirun”. This program will not only help protect your computer from the penetration of various malicious viruses into it, but also protect your USB flash drive from getting various "network junk" on it.
Another popular program for advanced users on the protection of removable drives is the utility “USB Disk Security” (at the time of this writing, its latest version is 5.0.0.76). This software, which takes up only one megabyte, is a compact analogue of a true 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 (this can be not only a USB flash drive, but also a memory card of a digital camera or mobile phone, MP3 player and other equipment) is to prohibit the ability to write any data to this medium without user confirmation for this action. This option will allow you to fully control what, where and when it was recorded on your media in order to prevent malicious programs from being recorded on it , and then you will not need any antivirus for flash drives.
In order to protect your computer from a possible threat from removable media, experienced users recommend updating the anti-virus databases as often as possible and from time to time completely scanning all the hard drives and removable media that you regularly use. Antivirus for flash drives should only be installed if for some reason the computer or laptop is left for some time without reliable antivirus protection. If this computer has access to the Internet, then it can be scanned for third-party and potentially dangerous programs even online - many leading antivirus manufacturers offer this service now for free.
It should not be forgotten that with careless and careless handling of your computer and removable media from malicious software, not a single antivirus for a flash drive or PC will help. If you regularly check the operating system and its resources with the help of specialized programs, the probability of infection of 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.