USB vaccine blocks malware

Johannesburg, 27 Mar 2009

Panda Security's USB Vaccine is designed to block malware that spreads through removable drives such as flash drives, CD/DVDs and MP3 players.

Jeremy Matthews, head of Panda's sub-Saharan operations, says: “There is an increasing amount of malware which, like the notorious Conficker worm, spreads via removable devices and drives such as memory sticks, MP3 players and digital cameras.”

Cyber-crooks are taking advantage of the way these devices work, Matthews says: “Windows uses the Autorun.inf file on these drives or devices to know which action to take when they are connected to the computer. This file, which is on the root directory of the device, offers the option to define a program to automatically run part of the content stored on the device when it connects to the computer.”

This feature is being used by cyber-crooks to spread viruses, through the modification of Autorun.inf. It does so with commands that result in the malware stored on the USB drive running automatically when the device connects to a computer. This will immediately infect the computer in question, he notes.

To prevent the infection of computers through this technique, Panda's USB Vaccine offers a double layer of preventive protection, allowing users to disable the AutoRun feature on computers as well as on USB drives and other devices. “This is a very useful tool as there is no easy way of disabling the AutoRun feature in Windows. It makes it much simpler for users, offering a high level of security against infections through removable drives and devices,” concludes Matthews.

The USB Vaccine is a free security solution downloadable from Panda's Web site.