Flash Drive Security Software

Flash drive security software make it easy for you to take the following steps to secure your flash drive

1. Disable auto run facility
2. Encrypt your flash drive
3. Wipe unused space and not required files clean.
4. Scan for infected content

Background

Threats from a flash drive are two fold

• Flash drives are a major carrier of viruses and malware.
• Flash drives are small and are easy to lose. If there is sensitive data on the flash drive its loss may be financially and legally damaging.

To guard against data loss through the loss of the flash drive, all data stored on a flash drive should be encrypted using strong encryption.

Even brand new, just bought USB flash drives may contain malware injected on it somewhere in the manufacturing and distribution process. It is a good idea to check every flash drive for malware.

Flash drives are particularly insidious because of their ability to spread malware to even secure networks with no connection to Internet.

A major way in which malware and viruses spread via USB Flash Drive is the Autorun facility in Windows. This was originally provided to simplify installation of programs on removable media for non technical users, but has been exploited by hackers.

Flash Drive Security Software

Truecrypt is a free, open source software. It has the ability to encrypt the entire flash drive or to encrypt a portion of it and mount it as a drive. Truecrypt is cross platform being available on Windows, Mac and Linux.

USB Immunizer from Bit Defender protects your computer from malware using Auto run to startup

USB Wiper from Sarah Dean can be used to wipe an USB clean.

A good virus, malware checker should be used to scan the content of the flash drive. Avira Free has scored well in Virus Bulletin's 2011 tests.

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