USB [IN]Securities & Solutions

RUNDOWN: I’m posting my weekly blog earlier than usual coz I didn’t get to blog much last Good Friday and basically to address some “disturbing” if not annoying issue “continuously” raised by one of our clients (Albatel aka Talk24) regarding the “Virus/Trojan infection” of the USB Softphone (please note, they ordered 10 “customized” dongles from us). For the record, the dongles ARE NOT INHERENTLY infected by anything – virus, trojans or malwares or spywares or anything like that. I know, and am certain of this because I tested 2-3 sealed batches and all came out negative of any infection (not even a false positive) using AVAST, AVG Anti-Malware and Spyware scans. However, I do admit that the usb dongles ARE NOT IMMUNE from infection, they were not really meant to be immune in the first place (as its primary use is for connecting people, not fighting malwares) and perhaps, never will be (if it were, then we would be in the anti-virus business not in VoIP). The plain truth is most if not all remove-able media (usb, flashdrives, multimedia cards, cdrw, floppies etc) will one way or another get infected somewhere and at any given time (especially if it is used on different PCs which most of the time is connected to the internet).

RESOLUTION: Be that as it may, there are steps to take in order to minimize (if not prevent) further infection not only of remove-able drives, but also of the PC itself which you can summarize this 4 easy steps:

1. Install and run the latest Anti-virus/Malware/Spyware programs (at least 2 must be active)

2. Keep the Anti-virus/Malware/Spyware program updated (weekly or even daily)

3. Allow ONLY authorized or trusted people to use your PC and remove-able media

4. Withhold or disable the autorun.inf (auto-launch feature) on your PC, using this useful easy-to-use utility since most of the “infections” on most remove-able drives are triggered by this on Windows PCs.

REMOVAL: Now, you ask, what if my dongles are already infected in the first place….can it still be fixed or cured? (this is like asking if the Pope is Catholic) Of course, just run your anti-virus program(s), assuming its up-to-date. It will scan, identify and delete (if you chose to do so) the infection. Again, the IKAW outline above will work only if you (IKAW) will simply follow the steps. Notice that each step, save for the last perhaps, focus primarily on the PC - clean it first from any infection, before plugging anything again as it may just infect the remove-able media (this is like putting a fresh fruit in a rotten basket of fruits, eventually all will turn out rotten right?)