Can USB stick move viruses from one computer to another

Sonny678

Sorry about this question, I hope its not a stupid question.I have written essay for college on my laptop and saved it to usb stick.I Dont have a printer. I used the computers in my college to print my eassy. I stuck my usb stick into computer used by college studnets in my college. I was wondering can I stick the usb back into my laptop. I know this might be a stupid question .But Can viruses be spread from one computer to another via usb memory stick. Is it ok to place USB back in my laptop even though used in the college.Could the usb have picked up viruses Thanx

Voodu Child

If you have a good antivirus you should be okay.

Try Microsoft Security Essentials, it is free and highly recommended.

James G

Yes, a virus can move to a USB flash drive.

danjo-xx

When you insert it in your laptop just right click on the drive and do a scan before opening anything.

FSL

It is also a good idea to ensure autoplay is switched of on all removable drives.

CrinkElite

absolutely, in fact this has become one of the most pervasive ways for malicious software to propagate.

However you're ok if your machine is up to date and you have automatic updates enabled.

Last Tuesday Microsoft finally disabled autorun by default thereby removing the opportunity for bad software to jump from your usb drive when you plug it in.


http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/12/microsoft-rolls-out-long-long-awaited-windows-update-to-disable/

Overheal

worms make their living by piggybacking on flash drives. frankly its a very common problem in colleges but in my experience the worms are just annoying, not "harmful" but its not to say they couldnt destroy your work. I started simply sending my work to gmail. You can also use online services like dropbox to keep your files saved in cloudspace. But with small files, like essays, its really easy to just keep sending them to yourself as attachments in gmail. Larger projects like CAD or Programming can be trickier.

It goes without saying run up to date protection software on your own machine. And never, ever have fewer than 3 copies, in 3 physical locations, of your important coursework. People lose their entire Thesis when they get a virus, or drop their portable drives on the ground. Have a home, portable, and online copy whenever you can and try to make sure you don't lose more than a few hours of work if you ever have a problem. Coursework has a real value tied to it: a complete thesis is at least as expensive as it cost you to live and work through 4 years of college: potentially tens of thousands of euros.

Took a quick look at Portableapps.com and there doesnt seem to be any portable virus scanner with real-time protection, but if you use a U3 stick it's probably still worth using Clamwin portable, and scanning your flash drive when you insert the drive and when you are about to remove it.

DoesNotCompute

danjo-xx wrote: »

When you insert it in your laptop just right click on the drive and do a scan before opening anything.

This might not be enough. If a USB drive has U3 technology, a virus on the USB drive can launch automatically, before you have a chance to run the anti-virus scan.

Then again, if you have an anti-virus program that monitors programs for virus-like activity, it will inform the user.

meemeep

you should ensure that your AV is setup to scan removable devices - I just checked mine and it wasn't - which surprised me. I've set it up now.

Port Royale

danjo-xx wrote: »

When you insert it in your laptop....

...and if your PC is not fully patched, your AV solution not up-to-date and both autorun and autoplay are not completely disabled, it's very likely (in case the USB pen/stick/disk is infected) you'll catch the bug!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoRun



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