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:
- Delete the “autorun.inf” file in the root folder of your thumb drive(if the file exists)
- 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.
