Today, there are so many flash drive viruses, some are a really terror. It makes file transfer from pc-to-pc impossible now due to combination of these viruses. It spreads from office to school to personal computers. But I was just wondering could it be same to external storage devices, or any other device hence they use USB cable to the USB port mostly used by flash drives? Its kinda risky to put all my files in my external storage device, that these viruses could wipe it out.
Here are the most popular flash drive viruses, I don’t know all of its capabilities:
> RECYCLER
>> This virus hides all folders and the first line of sub folders in those folders, yet still accessible.
> Unnamed Virus 1
>> This virus is the most terribly known virus, I hope you understand my explanation. I think it only infects folders. A copied folder from an infected computer to the flash drive is the target of this virus. The copied folder is totally altered, all files and sub folders are changed with unknown names and extensions (special characters and rectangle thingy like ZZZZZZ.ZZZZZZ) with ridiculously large files (up to 4GB, but it doesn’t really matter). The files are no longer usable)
>> Unnamed Virus 2
> Same as above but the altered folders and sub folders still has its original name but files inside it are changed to internet shortcuts and pictures (jpg and gif, it doesn’t have a preview)
>> Unnamed Virus 3
> Every compressed file (zip, rar, etc) are corrupted after you copy them, extracting them will just give you a message that there’s no archive found or its corrupted.
>> Unnamed Virus 4
> All executable files, when you run it, it will run the command prompt, after a few seconds it will close then… nothing.
>> Unnamed Virus 5
> All pictures in the folder and sub folders will no longer have a preview image (there’s no more image even if you open it)
* All Unnamed viruses infects only (as far as I know) copied folders from the infected computer, so when you inject in a different pc, the virus starts to work. Somehow injecting it in the same computer (where you copied them) doesn’t seem to infect the copied folder… I think (and in later days you can inject it to a pc without this unnamed viruses from altering your files)
Can you tell me solutions to clean and vaccinate my computer from this kind of viruses and to make file transfer possible again. Please give me more information about this viruses and how do they work and infect other computers, and do they also do there job in external storage devices or hard drives etc… Thanks for all the help.
These viruses run by using the autorun feature in windows and by autorun.inf files that execute the virus, when you open the usb drive
So for safety, disable autorun on your pc. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967715
Also use a program like autorun eater, this will detect and remove the autorun.inf file, so when you open an infected drive the malware wont run.
Lastly, only one autorun.inf file is allowed on the root of every drive, so create an empty folder on each drive and name it autorun.inf
http://download.cnet.com/Autorun-Eater/3000-2239_4-10752777.html
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