When using removable media or flash drives on a computer for data security, so as not to "infect" the device with various viruses, it is recommended to check them for threats immediately after connecting.
How to detect a virus
Computer protection against viruses, worms, Trojans, potentially dangerous threats is provided by specially designed and created programs - antiviruses. Currently, there are more than a dozen of these applications. Among them, the most popular are Kaspersky Anti-Virus, DrWeb, Avast, Avira AntiVir Personal, McAfee Security Scan Plus, Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus, AVG Free, Panda ActiveScan, Nod32 and others. There are also special online services that allow you to perform real-time verification for free and without installing special programs.
Virus Scanning Action Plan
You can scan your computer or flash drive using McAfee Security Scan Plus only if you have an Internet connection. To start the scanner, you need to click on the shortcut on the desktop (as a rule, it is installed automatically during the installation of the program) and connect the modem. If the connection is not established, and a notification window appears on the desktop, informing about an error, to eliminate it, just connect the Internet and click the "Retry" button. Sometimes it may be necessary to repeat the operation a little later.
It is useful from time to time to download special utilities from the official websites of antivirus programs to additionally check the flash drive for Trojans, worms, rootkits and other malicious applications.
If one of the versions of the Avast antivirus application is installed on your computer, it does not matter if you are using a free program for home use or licensed, supplemented with a number of useful and necessary functions and capabilities, connect a USB flash drive to the computer through the USB connector, open the "My Computer" section, find the device that you want to check for viruses, right-click on it and select "Scan" in the drop-down window. Start the scanning process. During the check, you can control its process. To do this, just use the buttons "Stop", "Pause", "Resume".
If the flash drive turns out to be clean, after checking a message will appear stating that no threats were found on the media. If viruses are found, a special table will display the infected files, their location, and the degree of risk of each document. Here, the program will offer to either treat or delete them. You can also move dangerous files to quarantine. It is recommended to apply the deletion procedure to incurable files.
To search for viruses on a USB flash drive, you can also use programs and utilities "Sharp Eye", Anti-Autoran, Antirun 2.7 and others.
Flash drives are checked in the same way when using other antiviruses. As a rule, all of them, at first glance, work the same way: select an object for verification (USB flash drive), right-click, select the item "Scan", "Check" (depending on the program, this item may differ slightly) and wait for the end of the process …
Some antiviruses are activated when the flash drive is connected to the computer. In this case, USB dick Security is very convenient, allowing you to check removable media immediately after starting. In this case, the program will do everything by itself, checking if there is a virus in startup. If a threat is detected, you will be prompted to remove it.
