| Can Flash Drives/Pen Drives be infected with a virus? | | | | system service files. SVCHOTS.EXE, |
| USB pen drives are very useful portable storage | | | | SSVICHOSST.EXE, SVICHOSSST.EXE, |
| devices which are very commonly used for | | | | RVHOST.EXE, SVICHOSST.EXE, etc.After infected |
| transporting computer data from one computer to | | | | they will hide all of your folders in the usb drive and |
| another. But, as the storage device is so common and | | | | virus application files are appear as your folders. When |
| easily used, the percentage of the USB drive being | | | | you double click to open folders the virus application |
| infected by viruses has also increased. The Flash | | | | running and will start to run virus process. |
| Drive can be infected with a virus if you save a | | | | Prevent Viruses from Infecting the USB Pen Drive |
| virus-infected file to the flash drive or if you use the | | | | 1. Use an industry standard Anti-Virus software such |
| Flash drive with a virus-infected computer. A | | | | as: Kaspersky Internet Security/Anti-virus, AVG |
| virus-infected drive can then infect any other computer | | | | Internet Security/Anti-virus, Trend-Micro, Norton |
| you might use with the drive. Not only that, they do | | | | Symantec, Microsoft, McAfee, Panda, Sophos, |
| many things to harm your PC. | | | | Bullguard, Avast, Avil, ESET etc. |
| Viruses Infecting From USB Drives | | | | 2. Keep your anti-virus program up to-date. |
| These viruses usually spread by the removable | | | | 3. Do not open the pen drive contents just after |
| storage devices like USB Flash drives. They disable | | | | plugging. |
| the Task Manager, CMD (command prompt), Registry | | | | 4. Disable the Autorun functionality in Windows |
| Editor, Policy Editor and hide "Folder Option" in the | | | | 5. Scan your flash drive for viruses immediately after |
| Tools menu of the infected pc. They appear with the | | | | plugging. |
| similar name to the windows service (system files) | | | | 6. Clean all infections if found in your USB pen by your |
| such as SVCHOST.exe. Following are some of the | | | | anti-virus program. |
| names which are used by this virus to appear as | | | | |