Panda USB Vaccine

Something none photography related but it does affect us. Panda today release a free utility which seems to be an effective approach in blocking malware a.k.a viruses / worms / trojans from spreading through USB drives. You can get it here. It uses a proactive approach in preventing this threat. Before we get into that you need to how malware spreads through USB drives:

Method 1: Traditional approach where a user double click on an infected executable in a USB drive. The malware would then infect your system if you do not have proper malware protection. To prevent this the user will need to conduct a full manual scan on the USB device before using.

Method 2: Which is the most dangerous because it does not require user interaction. It leverages on the auto run features. A malware would typically create an or overwrite the AUTORUN.INF file within a USB drive and when you plug it into your system without proper malware protection your system will be infected. The is no workaround and you have to depend on your Anti-virus on access detection capabilities which can be ineffective at times.

Panda utility enables user to easily create an AUTORUN.INF file within all the USB drives which the users owns. This file is write protected and read only which means the malware cannot use Method 2 to infect your system.