Securing your USB Flash Drives

The inventor of the USB Flash Drives should be accorded a Nobel Prize or something.

I can no longer imagine living life without it, frankly, I don't even remember how I lived when this trusted tool has not yet touched out lives...

I remember picking out my first cool 3.5" micro-floppy blue colored with yellow streaks Verbatim disk keeper back in highschool. I used to pride myself over the idea that I can carry around my data, like a true data warrior! I'd have an assortment of pre-apps on there - MS DOS, NAV, Turbo C, and even an installer copy of the then, rave of network gaming, Dune 2000.... Ha! Those were the days!

Going back to my point - today's data warriors are equipped with sleek looking devices which can sometimes be mistaken for a keychain or a pocket utility knife. They come in various shapes, sizes, and even functionalities - today, USB Flash Disks are not even limited to just data storage - they often come together with neat features like MP3/MP4 players, Utility functions like pocket lights or ball point pens...

Along with all these features and convinience though comes the sad fact that you might also be carrying around an assortment of viruses, malware, and what have you's, ignorantly spreading them around without the slightest clue...

Enter, one of the best solutions I've discovered so far... USB Firewall 1.1.3

This nifty software basically acts as your first line of defence over those baddies that catch a ride on them pocket drives,,,

It not only alerts you of intrusion from the USB Device, it also helps you identify the source of the virus/malware, stop it or otherwise delete it. You dont even have to update any virus definitions to get your rig up to date security.

The application itself is very compact and once installed it runs silently as a service in the background and only turns itself on once you insert the USB Drive.

USB Firewall is actually free, and if you want to get the link, you can just leave me your email/contact information and I'll PM you the link. Or email me directly here

One disadvantage though is that, although its virus detection is very good, it often misses on identifying pre-existing virus infection that may already be in your system. Meaning it's still a must to keep a full antivirus software to clean up whatever this software misses.

Here's a screenshot courtesy of one of our friends from the blogosphere: