Viruses Everywhere. Beware Your Child'S Flash Drive

[Paul888]

This will probably sound obvious to the majority of you, but make sure you have a good (legitimate and regularly updating) anti virus product on your pc that disables auto running of flash drives and cds, and AUTOMATICALLY scans them upon insertion. (ESPECIALLY if you have a child in the house that carries around a flash drive or a telephone that can play music downloaded from the internet).

Everyday our teenager goes to school with a clean disinfected flash drive, and every evening she comes home from school with upwards of 30 viruses infecting it.

The source of these viruses? Computers in the school and not just one school.

I was just asked to look at her cousin's pc because the speakers had stopped working and found upwards of 1000 viruses on this pc including some very clever ones that disabled task manager and restricted what sites you could connect to on the internet (ie nothing that could cause it harm - microsoft, any antivirus companies sites etc). In the end i had to remove the drive and scan it as a plug in from a clean pc.

These infected drives are inserted anywhere there is a pc, and that means they are spreading like wildfire.

So if you have a pc at home, make sure you protect yourself and if you use pcs outside, always look and see if they have any protection before using it.

[sceadugenga]

So what do you call a good antivirus?

I carry flash drives and use them on other peoples, and occasionally public, computers with out much problem.

When you say viruses are you including Trojans etc?

[Paul888]

Viruses (worms mainly) and trojans and of course they multiply like rabbits and attach themselves to any application or file that is running.

Personally, I use Kaspersky Pure nowadays (about $69 for one pc or $99 to protect 3) but different people have different preferences and I have never seen any definitive "this is the best" endorsement from a credible source without affiliate link. The most important aspect to me is the ability to keep itself updated, auto scan anything inserted into the pc and not make me think too much.

In recent years, I have used the premium protection from AVG, McAfee and Norton and I feel safer now than previously. Kaspersky have a 30 day full version trial.

There ARE good free anti-virus softwares, but very little in life is really free, so ask yourself HOW you are paying for it.

I was thinking of donating some licenses to the school, but when you consider that they almost certianly don't even have legitimate copies of windows, there doesn't seem much point.

[grrr]

Photo printing shops are also a great source of viruses. Every time we want to print some photos and stick them on a USB drive, the USB drive comes home with viruses. Luckily we have no Windows computers in the house...

[sceadugenga]

I haven't had photos printed in a shop for a few years now but I always used to copy them and take them in on a CD. Can you still do that?

After the printing you can just use the CD as a drink coaster, viruses and all.

[kandahar]

I use the Microsoft Windows operating system. That is the one that most viruses are written for. I quit using Internet Explorer and switched to Google Chrome for my browser. That switch in itself helped reduce the number of problems I was getting.

For virus / trojan / malware / spyware / adware I previously used McAfee and before that, Norton. Both cost money and have to be renewed every year. I later found out that you don't have to spend money for decent protection.

I use Avira Anti-Virus now. Have used it for the last year. It is a free download and updates itself constantly. I have had much better luck with Avira than any of the paid subscription services. In fact, since I installed Avira, I have not had one virus. I used to get viruses regularly with the other services and some of them are a real bear to get rid of. Avira does offer a paid service with more bells and whistles but it isn't needed. The free version works fine.

I also downloaded Malwarebytes Anti-Malware at the same time. It is free as well but I can't get it to update automatically with the free version so I have to tell it to update once a week. I scanned both of our computers with it and it found around 100 viruses, mal-ware programs and back-door programs on my computer and several hundred on the wife's computer. It deleted them all and left me with clean machines. I still scan with Malwarebytes regularly but it never finds anything. Avira is doing a perfect job so far.

In my opinion, the most important part of Paul888's message is making sure the virus programs check any new device that you plug into your machine before it lets the machine do anything else with the files on that device. If your program isn't set to scan new devices automatically, then it isn't stopping the crap before it enters your machine.

There are other good free anti-virus, anti-malware programs out there. A quick review of the techie websites will find recommendations and reviews for what is available for free and how well it works.

[dindong]

agee with you about the Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and I use Eset Nod 32 antivirus.

I also run CCleaner from CCleaner - Optimization and Cleaning - Free Download every now and again.

[RedBullHorn]

good post !

[sceadugenga]

Paranoia struck so checked antivirus, AVG. It expired 2 months ago. Currently downloading Avira.

Decided to download Malwarebytes, it found 600 "errors".

Removed 15 and demanded money.

Threw it straight into recycle bin.

Currently looking for a really free anti malware.

[jubby]

I use Mcafee. Only had problems on PC's that don't have it. you can get a three licence 'legit' copy for about 10 dollars on Ebay. I've just updated mine.

Its 10 dollars US, well spent

Edited June 24, 2010 by jubby

[kandahar]

Paranoia struck so checked antivirus, AVG. It expired 2 months ago. Currently downloading Avira.

Decided to download Malwarebytes, it found 600 "errors".

Removed 15 and demanded money.

Threw it straight into recycle bin.

Currently looking for a really free anti malware.

You have to be careful which Malwarebytes you download. There are several versions offered and only one is free. You downloaded the one wrong one. Uninstall it and download the free one. I recommend that you download from this site: Malwarebytes Anti-Malware - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

Use the Download Now (5.87MB) button at the top of the page, left side. The price listed below that ($22.45) is a separate link that will get you the CDs and all of the other crap.

Edited June 24, 2010 by kandahar

[kandahar]

It is also a good idea to uninstall any previous anti-virus programs that are outdated.

[angiud]

Is a good idea install CPE 17 Autorun Killer and you get rid of all those infected thumb drives

[sceadugenga]

Dang Avira download is stuck on 97%

[kandahar]

That is probably because of an existing virus that won't let it fully load.

For real, Scea, uninstall the previous malware thing. Don't just delete it. Then download the correct one. Run it. It will clean the machine and then you can download Avira. And make sure you uninstall the older virus programs.

If you need help, let me know. I'll come visit you.

[sceadugenga]

Installing now.

I think I'll go for Ad Aware for the other, I've used it before and was quite pleased.

Don't feel you need a reason to visit, the dog loves a visitor.

Edit: All fixed, I went with Malwarebytes and it found 3 Trojans which I didn't think was too bad.

Edited June 24, 2010 by sceadugenga

[RedBullHorn]

Paranoia struck so checked antivirus, AVG. It expired 2 months ago. Currently downloading Avira.

Decided to download Malwarebytes, it found 600 "errors".

Removed 15 and demanded money.

Threw it straight into recycle bin.

Currently looking for a really free anti malware.

did the same, straight to bin and empty it, don't want to see it again

[Semper]

Note to self, don't let the kids use my computer.

[RedBullHorn]

Is a good idea install CPE 17 Autorun Killer and you get rid of all those infected thumb drives

Yeah ! I'm using this too, mine's version 1.8.6

[villagefarang]

Just get a Mac and those windows viruses, etc. won't run on it. I have yet to experience any problems with my iMac. Then again it might help to stay away from those porn sites.

[sceadugenga]

Agreed on the porn sites, a visitor once "accidentally" opened one on mine and it took a week to get rid of the bug.

My neighbour has a Mac, it works great except when it's in the shop. (200kms away in Chiang Mai).

[mcgriffith]

Read this regarding Apple OS viruses.

4 or 5 years ago, when Apple products were a tiny fraction of web enabled devices, it was probably true that most Mac users had nothing to fear.

With the explosive growth in sales of the various iPhones, and now iPads....whole new ballgame.

I use AVG AV free, and Malwarebytes anti- malware free, along with Windows Security Essentials and Defender.

I don't pay a farthing for any of these, and I can't remember the last time I had an infection (was a trojan about 1 yr ago?).

Of course I update AVG daily (set up for automatic update every time I log on), and run a full system scan at least weekly. Malwarebytes free I have to manually update, and I run a quick scan at least once or twice a week. Malwarebytes very good product- It's caught things missed by AVG on one or 2 occasions

On AVG there is a setting for an immediate scan of any inserted device- flash drive, whatever.

Everytime I insert my AIS 3G modem (which also has storage and thus is considered a flash drive) AVG runs a full scan (takes seconds). I see it on the log file.

Used to use Avira but had update issues with them so shitcanned the program.

Ad-Aware good, but very intrusive and in-your-face alerts and alarms.

Just my 25 satang....:jap:

[lukamar]

I use Malwarebytes and it's registered plus Avast. I've also used AVG Free and Avira. Had good luck with all of them. I'm also giving Microsoft Windows One Care a go, it's online and also free also available in many languages including Thai. http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/center/howsafe.htm I've just changed to Win7 64 bit so some of the scanners are not all that compatible with Win7 or 64 bit, as they scan in 32 bit mode.

Also run Spybot Search and Destroy in Resident mode.

Edited June 25, 2010 by lukamar

[klikster]

In a modern file system, THE FILE AND THE FOLDER THAT HAVE THE SAME NAME CANNOT CO-EXIST IN THE SAME LOCATION and file names of the file systems FAT/FAT32/NTFS are CASE INSENSITIVE.

This means, that if we create the autorun.inf folder in the root of your flash device, no file with the same name can ever be created. Therefore, based on the existing properties of the modern file systems, we can easily create an insurmountable obstacle for autorun infections that will render their autorun process impossible incidentally.

Luckily, the above method can be applied on absolutely any PC.

Source

[lukamar]

This means, that if we create the autorun.inf folder in the root of your flash device, no file with the same name can ever be created.

The problem with that option is a worm or Trojan can be created to modify the autorun.inf file thus allowing the unwanted action the next time it is installed in a port. You may however be able to password protect the autorun.inf file, depending on the operating system used, making it harder to overwrite and thus giving a bit more protection.