How to Protect USB Flash Drive from Viruses

USB Flash Drives have become the most popular method of data transfer since they allow for quick file transfer and sharing from one computer to another. Although using USB flash drives can cause your computer to crash due to virus infestation, you could be a victim of this vulnerability. Because you can't do anything about viruses infecting USB flash drives (particularly Autorun.inf infections, trojans, Rats...), I'm creating this post about How to Protect Your USB Flash Drive from Viruses and Make Your Computer More Secure When Using Those USB Keys.

How your USB Flash Drive is Infected?

While using the USB flash drive to transfer data between computers, it may catch different types of viruses like Trojans, Rats, Worms, Autorun.inf... you cannot see how & when the virus is copied to USB flash drive,  because it works & spread silently. So when it's connected to an Infected PC the virus is directly transmitted to the USB, then the virus will do one of the following infection methods:

1)The virus creates 2 Files:  Autorun.inf & Worms Viruses

• Autorun.inf: It auto-executes the virus when you open the USB drive by double click.
• Virus.exe or Virus.com: This virus will be executed by Autorun.inf, it's always a .exe .com or .pif file.

2)The virus will infect any Files in the USB:  Rats & Trojans

• The virus will begin exploring and running through all of the files on the USB flash drive, infecting them with itself (binding the files), and when you try to open any of the programmes on the flash drive, your computer will be infected by the virus, and it will begin destroying your computer.

How to Protect USB Drive from Viruses

If you are suffering from the above 2 types of infections, then you can apply the following 3 Tricks to Protect your USB & Computer from malware, spyware or any other infections.

1) USB Flash Drive Antivirus

You can install one of the top USB Antivirus protection applications to safeguard your computer from numerous assaults. When you install Flash, it begins scanning all of your directories and subfolders for typical forms of threats.

     Top USB Flash Drive Antivirus:

• TrustPort Antivirus
• Naevius Software
• USB AutoRun Anti

2) Scan for USB Viruses using CMD

You can also scan for Autorun.inf with the CMD from Windows, by this method you can search for Autorun.inf and delete it.

1. Press Windows + R and type CMD to open the command prompt.
2. Now type your USB drive letter (you can find it on Computer) followed by Autorun.inf example: F:\Autorun.inf
3. Press Enter , if a new Notepad window is opened then you have to proceed to step 4, else your USB is not infected.
4. If you found an Autorun in step3 then type the following command: del /a/f/s F:\Autorun.inf and replace F:\ with your drive letter/

3) Write Protect USB Drive

With this method, you can prevent your USB drive from being written to, which means no one can copy things to it and viruses can't change it. And you can only easily read files. Here's the best software for writing protection on USB drives:

• USB Write Protector
• USB Write Protect 2.0
• ThumbScrew