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We all know about the damage that viruses and other malicious code can cause our computers. It can be just a small irritant all the way up to complete computer failure. We lose productivity and often time and money, as we have to spend time (and money) to remove and repair damage caused by viruses.
Many people often overlook a seemly innocent way viruses are transmitted: via a USB device. Because of their small size and easy of use, USB drives are often found to contain viruses that are the transmitted between machines.
Anytime you are planning to use a USB drive, make sure that you scan it with anti-virus software. You should do this before trying to access any data on the drive.
If you don’t have access to anti-virus software on a particular machine that you need to use a USB device with you can check for and eliminate them using commands from your DOS command line.
Basically you will use the “attrib –r –a –s –h*.*” command to reveal all the files on the drive without actually activating any viruses. You will then view the details of the devices so you can examine the contents.
You should delete any files on your USB device called “Autorun.inf” as these are viruses. Also, delete any folders you did not create or transfer to the drive. Viruses often disguise themselves a folders with names such as “system volume” or even “applications.”
Taking care to eliminate virus risk will keep your computers clean and running smoothly.
