Panda Security is one of the best know antivirus software suites around. In fact, Panda Security’s software is recommended on our main homepage because they produce the effective cloud antivirus. Few users know that Panda provides many other free useful utilities. I think one of the best is Panda USB Vaccine.
Panda USB Vaccine is a small 800k antivirus companion that disables the autorun feature for all usb interfaces. The concept is that when someone plugs in a usb flash drive to a computer there is an auto launching capability that is initiated by the autorun.inf. A normal use for the autorun.inf file will be to launch a usb flash helper like the sandisk u3 tray icon. However, there are many other nefarious uses such as automatically loading viruses and trojans. In fact, this form of virus transmission is one of the most prevalent way to inadvertently and stealthy spread viruses.
USB viruses also affect me personally. Ironically, even though I write antivirus reviews on this site I do not run a real time free antivirus. I don’t because I want to run the leanest system possible (not recommended). Therefore, USB viruses are basically the only way I can get a virus. Just imagine this situation, one is in class and a group member comes over with a powerpoint loaded on their usb flash drive. I hate to say it, but it looks weird to deny a firend/group member from putting the flash drive into one’s laptop because it might contain a viruses. And before one can even react, a virus is automatically and stealthy loaded onto computer while the antivirus program misses it.
Another situation may arise at a business. Forget about the traditional way of hacking (i.e. going through the firewall and NAT) a hacker just walks right in the door and sticks a usb flash drive on the back of a desktop. The hacker doesn’t even need to touch the keyboard as the virus will be automatically launched on the next reboot. Some businesses have even glued their usb ports to prevent this (also not recommended).
Panda USB Vaccine has an autorun capability in that it installs itself as a service and constantly monitors any new presence of a usb drive and blocks the autorun.info from loading. In addition, Panda USB Vaccine can vaccinate any removable drive and also supports NTFS drives (very few usb security programs do). Panda USB Vaccine uses only 700 kilobytes in memory and has autoupdate capability. Finally, Panda USB Vaccine also protects against CD/DVD ROMs and hard drives.
