Replying to Avoid Flash Disk Viruses

FDGuard 1.21Avoid Flash Disk Viruses

try this free software to minimize virus infection from flashdisk:Http://www.Ziddu.Com/download/12108094/fdguard_1.21.Zip.Html

-reply by mr_orche

 

just scan your flash disk regularly

So that stops all auto-run applications?

I never knew about that, but I don't think I would want them all not running generally.

And this is to disable all autorun in XP :

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoDriveTypeAutoRun"=dword:000000ff
"NoDriveAutoRun"=hex:ff,ff,ff,03

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom]
"AutoRun"=dword:00000000

save it as noautorun.reg and double click it.

Just because someone uses IE does not necessarily mean they are an inferior computer user. In fact, I have had more issue with Firefox plugins than I've ever had with IE plugins, and IE7 is avtually a good browser. I still use Firefox, but I disapprove of the whole IE is Microsoft thus not good software idea.

It is a good idea to remove the autorun feature from flash drives. I know of no pieces of software for flash drives, other than viruses, that require the autorun feature to work, and there never should be.

~Viz

I didn't say someone using ie, i said "someone using ie and has alot of toolbars". Someone using IE and having multiple advertising-oriented BHO toolbars throws up a warning flag to me.

IE is bad not because it's microsoft, but because it's such a popular target for attacks due to its tight integration with the underlying operating system. Overrun a buffer in IE and you have potentially the same level of access to the computer that the shell does...overrun a buffer in firefox and congratulations, you've just annoyed someone by crashing their browser.

If you see someone that uses IE and has alot of toolbars and crap, or seems computer illiterate, don't stick your disk in there.

Just because someone uses IE does not necessarily mean they are an inferior computer user. In fact, I have had more issue with Firefox plugins than I've ever had with IE plugins, and IE7 is avtually a good browser. I still use Firefox, but I disapprove of the whole IE is Microsoft thus not good software idea.

It is a good idea to remove the autorun feature from flash drives. I know of no pieces of software for flash drives, other than viruses, that require the autorun feature to work, and there never should be.

~Viz

You could also just be more judicious about who's machine you shove your flash drive into, and who you let shove their flash drive into your machine. It's really common sense, like sex. If you see someone that uses IE and has alot of toolbars and crap, or seems computer illiterate, don't stick your disk in there.

Especially with flash disks, the autorun feature is where all the viruses and worms load themselves. Currently I'm fighting an infestation of Ravmon.E worms. They hop around on flash disks, and for some reason neither NOD32 nor AVG is detecting it. It's a pretty harmless virus, doesn't destroy anything, just runs and makes a nuisance of itself. It's easy to kill, and looking at a flash disk with total commander shows the virus, and from there's it's just a click to delete. the problem is users. who don't know what they're doing and think they know better, and refuse to stop the autorun feature. That, and they won't open their pgp disks (which ravmon infects as well), so they come crying for a cleanup, and the next day they're back again.

From my experience anti virus softwate cannot truly kill nasty viruses, it can only slow them down. Any virus or spyware etc that an anti virus has taken care of for me fully, is one I could easily fix manually, and do a cleaner job of it.

But if you have the space and time for it, something that stops infected files from even running in the first place is certainly a useful idea.

Having known file type extensions not hidden as well as protected operating system files showing etc is useful if you need to go hunt the bugs yourself.

If your TaskMan is not working, download a third party one, or actually Microsoft has a more advanced one of their own that is free I believe and won't be affected by TaskMan, it can even replace TaskMan if you want it to (sorry I can't remember the name of it right now).

And Yeah I wouldn't have auto run CD's/DVD's etc on either, aside from being sometimes annoying, it could be running a virus for all anyone knows.

bwa, having an Anti-virus program installed is everything you need (doesn't matter how you look at it, having no anti-virus solution up and running is suicide).

While I agree it is a bad idea not to have antivirus software, having antivirus software does not make you immune. I've both received from infected friends and worked directly with (installed myself, even created myself (I was doing a research project)) viruses that cannot be cleaned (or sometimes detected) by antivirus. I use Symantec Corporate and keep it up to date, but there are some viruses it finds, and fails to properly clean, and some it can't find. For those who are about to jump on me with the whole "Symantec sucks" shpiel, first of all, it doesn't, and second of all, in these cases I use AVG as a backup. I've noticed that AVG finds and cleans some stuff Symantec doesn't, and Symantec finds and cleans stuff AVG doesn't. I'm not sure which, if either, is truly better. All I know is that I'm better than either of them, when I need to be. Using antivirus software is not guaranteed protection, especially since there are some viruses that work "with" antivirus software, for instance, to help them gain fully priveleged access to system files they otherwise wouldn't be able to touch. So even if running antivirus, keep an eye out for when your system starts to act up.

~Viz