Virus protection for flash drives

"Configure your home pc to never autorun USBs when they are mounted
Keep a policy to never get home executable programs from school

get compilable sources and recompile :-)
if you need tools from the web download straight from home

Keep the USB connected at school for a minimum time when transferring data

Of course, if you are happy with moving data from home to school
and never want to get any back home.
Just format the USB every time you get it back from school."

"See

http://answers.Yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090616091607AApD6Zy)

for a link. I would've posted it, but have signed out of OpenID, and apparently unregistered/new users can only post one link in a message. And, reading the Yahoo page will be quite useful.

The ""unmodifiable"" autorun.inf is actually:
a) a directory named autorun.inf with SHR attributes that,
b) contains a very strange file, named ""lpt3.This folder was created by Flash_Disinfector"", which can neither be copied, deleted, or renamed by Windows. If I remember correctly, documentation somewhere says that the only way to remove this unmodifiable autorun.inf folder is by formatting the drive. However, Linux is not subject to these restrictions, and can easily copy/move/rename the folder.

Flash_Disinfector.exe is actually a RAR-SFX (self-extracting) archive. One of the archive's contents, nircmd.exe - which is used to silently execute commands - might trigger your existing security software."

Use a virus scanner and a personal firewall, don't enable sharing on any of your drives and don't let others use your flash drive.

There's a simple way: you can protect your flash's root so viruses will fail to modify autorun.inf, as MOST of them do. ACLs will help! You must have NTFS filesystem there to have ACL enabled.

"""Flash_Disinfector.exe"" works in a way sort-of similar to Panda USB Vaccine, by creating an unmodifiable autorun.inf entry in the root of partitions and pen drives.

There is, however, one scenario in which the protection afforded by an unmodifiable autorun.inf can be bypassed. There's an infection - which may be called ""New Folder.exe"" - that scans flash drives, and creates copies of itself in every directory, giving those copies the same name as the directory. Even with an unmodifiable autorun.inf, it is possible to mistakenly execute the malware's copies...

In short:
a) keep one's own computer clean,
b) disable autorun/autoplay
c) always launch pen drives from Start->Run or the address bar in Windows Explorer
d) ensure that hidden files and file extensions are viewable."