Tag: Antivirus

Categories
Solutions Windows

Protect your Thumb Drive from Viruses using a Simple Hack



One of the easiest ways for getting your system infected with viruses is by using infected thumbdrives.  Most viruses create a startup file with the name “autorun.inf” and in the file point to the location of the virus(within the drive) to be run automatically when the thumb drive is detected.

Most Antivirus programs detect these viruses but there is a simple hack that can be used to prevent these Autorun viruses from infecting your drive.

All you need to do is:

  1. Delete the “autorun.inf” file in the root folder of your thumb drive(if the file exists)
  2. Create a new folder with the name” autorun.inf” in the root folder of the thumb drive

How does this work?
Well most viruses create the autorun.inf file when the thumb drive is inserted, by creating a folder with the same name the virus cannot create the file. Also since its a folder its not straightforward to delete and replace it(thank you Fat32 filesystem)

Ps: This hack works with most common viruses but its still recomended that you have an updated antivirus program to faithfully protect your system against virus attacks.

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Categories
Ubuntu

Antivirus in Linux…

Off late I have been looking at Antivirus solutions in linux.  Logically it seems like a great idea to me.  Most of the really bad viruses attack the antivirus system directly and cause major damage to the system, having your AV in a opertating system that is much more secure gives you a better guarantee that you can rescue your system.

There are many antivirus solutions for Linux.  I have personally tried ClamAV and Avast.

ClamAV is a command line tool that makes protecting linux systems a simple affair.  The system was orginally made to scan email attachments and does a great job running in the background.  ClamAV is the prefect soulution for someone who wants to install the AV and let it take care of itself.

To Install ClamAv use the following command in Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install clamav

You can a scan of any folder using the following command

clamscan -r -i -l avscan.txt –move=avscan/. /media/disk

The above command scans the folder “/media/drive” recursively and if an infection is found the original location is stored as an enty in the “avscan.txt” file and the infected file is moved to the folder “avscan”.

Avast Antivirus is the more like the traditional Windows Antivirus.  It has a simple UI for updates and scanning of folders and files.  The learning curve is minimal and the antivius is updated very regularly too.

You can download and install Avast from the following location:

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-for-linux-workstation.html

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