Preventing your flash drive from getting infected

[Sl33py]

I work on a lot on different PC and I am forever plugging my flash drive into them to get updates and programs. If a machine is infected and you don’t know it you can transfer viruses around without knowing it, this is very embarrassing especially if your next customer PC detects it.
To prevent this from happening I use a card reader that is the size of a match box and use a SD card that you can lock, so you can read data of it but nothing can get written to it. If you plug a locked SD card into a PC and you get an error or the read performance is very slow chances are the PC is infected.
Hope this helps someone

 

[HavocXphere]

Easier solution that works with all flash drives: NTFS formated. Create autorun.inf Remove all write permissions to it.

 

[Nimz]

Easier solution that works with all flash drives: NTFS formated. Create autorun.inf Remove all write permissions to it.

+1

 

[Mantis]

I work on a lot on different PC and I am forever plugging my flash drive into them to get updates and programs. If a machine is infected and you don’t know it you can transfer viruses around without knowing it, this is very embarrassing especially if your next customer PC detects it.
To prevent this from happening I use a card reader that is the size of a match box and use a SD card that you can lock, so you can read data of it but nothing can get written to it. If you plug a locked SD card into a PC and you get an error or the read performance is very slow chances are the PC is infected.
Hope this helps someone

Or a flash drive which has a lock button (like some flash drive mp3 players)

 

[bdt]

The magic sauce must be the NTFS formatting 'cos a (HA!) 'read only' autorun.inf on a FAT32 drive is about as effective as tissue paper to a charging bull (quoth the oke with the W32/Chir.B *trashed* tools drive...)

 

[bdt]

I work on a lot on different PC and I am forever plugging my flash drive into them to get updates and programs. If a machine is infected and you don’t know it you can transfer viruses around without knowing it, this is very embarrassing especially if your next customer PC detects it.

I'm less worried about embarrassment than I am about propagating the damn infection..

To prevent this from happening I use a card reader that is the size of a match box and use a SD card that you can lock, so you can read data of it but nothing can get written to it. If you plug a locked SD card into a PC and you get an error or the read performance is very slow chances are the PC is infected.

So, having had MY tools drive obliterated (all the .exe's are toast), I've (late, belatedly, with much anguish) decided to go in this direction. But as the devil is in the details, I have to ask: just what KIND of SD card have you got there: a micro one in a micro-to-standard adapter where the adapter has the write-lock, or is it a flat-out full size SD card with a write-tab?

 

[K3NS31]

The magic sauce must be the NTFS formatting 'cos a (HA!) 'read only' autorun.inf on a FAT32 drive is about as effective as tissue paper to a charging bull (quoth the oke with the W32/Chir.B *trashed* tools drive...)

Ya, read-only autorun doesn't seem to work with most viruses nowadays. Haven't tried NTFS formatting myself, but I do have 1 flash drive with a write protect switch. They're impossible to find though, we've asked all our hardware suppliers and nobody can get one anymore.
Anybody out there know if they're still being made?

 

[Sl33py]

I have to ask: just what KIND of SD card have you got there: a micro one in a micro-to-standard adapter where the adapter has the write-lock, or is it a flat-out full size SD card with a write-tab?

I have a micro one in a micro-to-standard adapter where the adapter has the write-lock

Or a flash drive which has a lock button (like some flash drive mp3 players)

What brand? I could only get Axiz ones and they don’t do them anymore

 

[K3NS31]

I have a micro one in a micro-to-standard adapter where the adapter has the write-lock


What brand? I could only get Axiz ones and they don’t do them anymore

I'd also like to know this. Axiz definitely can't get them anymore, we've asked a few times.