How to protect USB Flash thumb drives?

i'd like to know the best ways to protect USB flash thumb drives.
my concern is not to get infected when i plug in my USB drives in others people computers.
especially at work since the boss likes to play with cracks and whatnot.
apparently "they're clean" he says, then wonder why his machine is riddled with malwares. lol

i found a software called USB Write Protect but it requires .NET to run. some XP users do not use .NET

how do you folks protect yourself from bosses that like to play with viruses?

 

see
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=295068

 

i am the boss of my own, so i got no such problems but as for the protection of flash drives, i recommend you to buy one with a write protect mode. it's just one of those locks we're used to from 3 1⁄2" floppies.

 

tnx Cudni.

i searched the forums before creating this thread but for some reason that link you gave escaped me.

tnx again!

 

from what i could find, the only way to be completely secure is to make the drive read-only.

i could not find any software to make this.
there are some expensive USB keys that offer that feature.

you can do it for your own machine, but that's useless when computing on the go.

 

Detection of infection: How to check if a USB flash drive is infected before use by using digital signatures.

 

Ariad

 

tnx MrBrian,

this is a little technical for me but it seems to only affect autorun.

i want to make the drive read-only.
and i want to make it read-only on any Windows machine without having to play with the settings of every machine i need to use the thumb drive on.
this does not seem possible from what i can tell.
unless you buy a thumb drive with this feature built-in.

no wonder USB keys are a major source of infection...

 

anyway:

here's the best page i could find about read-only hardware protected thumb drives:
-http://www.fencepost.net/2010/03/usb-flash-drives-with-hardware-write-protection/
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edit:
and from that page, the only viable contender would seem to be this puppy:
-https://www.kanguru.com/index.php/flash-drives/basic-flash/kanguru-flashblu-ii

i like: capless design, slightly above average write/read speed for USB 2.0, large hole for the keyring, and very decent price.
i'll get a 16 GB i think.

only 4 reviews at Amazon but they seem very favorable:
-http://www.amazon.com/Kanguru-Solutions-ALK-16G-16GB-Flashblu/dp/B0017LFOL6/ref=pd_cp_e_4

in a year or so, these things will be cheap enough for me to carry my whole life on my keychain. lol
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it looks like you were right all along...
i just should have taken the advice and save meself 4 hours of research. lol

 

http://sourceforge.net/projects/noautorun/

Check out this one. I used to run it, but it's a long time ago. It has some kind of "write protection" if memory serves right.

 

You wanna take a look at pandlouk's guide
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=224516

 

+1 mrpink
That's what I've done with my sticks and nothing's ever been written to any of them.

philby

 

Don't forget these ?

Plus quite a few others in there too.

 

Pandlouk's approach is excellent for those seeking absolute write-preventative security to their flash drives from unknown and untrusted machines, but many people want the ability to write files to their drives from these type locations, so it is possible to modify the "Special" permissions to achieve this. Files can write to the Corsair but they can't execute from it.

It is also important to disable autorun/autoply on your own machines. Also, people wanting to plug into an unknown machine have to take some steps to determine if it's safe to do so, before plugging their drive into it.

 

you know what? i used to have one of those and it was a kingston twinmos. and it wasn't expensive at all. it cost as much as a standard usb flash drive did back then. hope this helps.

 

tnx to all the help folks.
i think the portable USB thumbdrive with the hardware read-only mode is the way i'm gonna go.

some of the stuff in this thread is more involved technically than i prefer.
and i'm wondering about how long it would take to undo the stuff in pandlouk's guide if i decide to do so.

nevertheless, i will give it a try tomorrow.

tnx again folks!

 

USB drives are so dangerous in so many ways.

Good thread
Timely updates
Thx