Can my USB mobile broadband stick get virused?

HeWhoRocks · 30. Mar 2010, 09:31 PM

Is there any any known virus that can specifically target my internet stick and if so are there any extra security measures i can take to try and prevent this?
I use Avast for my realtime scanner and Malwarebytes for on demand.

MidnightCowboy · 30. Mar 2010, 10:06 PM

My own connection here is currently via a Sony Ericsson MD300 USB broadband which like others of it's type also doubles as a flash drive, although with a 169MB total capacity it's not much use for storing movies on!

In this respect yes it can get infected and I've not yet found any USB specific security software which doesn't at some point cause a problem. I prefer to leave mine alone and just choose this drive for an extra scan or two. Programs like Panda Cloud, Malwarebytes and others offer this from a right click menu so it's very easy to scan it separately now and again. I've never found anything on it.

HeWhoRocks · 30. Mar 2010, 10:34 PM

Thanks MC.

chris.p · 31. Mar 2010, 06:49 PM

I found that when a USB drive was inserted into an infected drive with a rootkit, an extra file was placed on the drive, called autorun.inf

Removing that file did not affect the USB stick operation in any way.

So I guess if the drive is writeable, yes, a virus file can be written onto it. I know there is at least one app to deal with this kind of thing - for example by disabling autorun on any newly-inserted drive - so there are solutions. Or set the drive to read-only if this is possible?

30. Mar 2010, 09:31 PM	#1 (permalink)
HeWhoRocks Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Mostly planet Earth Posts: 323	Can my USB mobile broadband stick get virused? Is there any any known virus that can specifically target my internet stick and if so are there any extra security measures i can take to try and prevent this? I use Avast for my realtime scanner and Malwarebytes for on demand.

30. Mar 2010, 10:06 PM	#2 (permalink)
MidnightCowboy Site Manager Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: South American Banana Republic, third bunch from the left Posts: 15,365	My own connection here is currently via a Sony Ericsson MD300 USB broadband which like others of it's type also doubles as a flash drive, although with a 169MB total capacity it's not much use for storing movies on! In this respect yes it can get infected and I've not yet found any USB specific security software which doesn't at some point cause a problem. I prefer to leave mine alone and just choose this drive for an extra scan or two. Programs like Panda Cloud, Malwarebytes and others offer this from a right click menu so it's very easy to scan it separately now and again. I've never found anything on it. __________________ Buy a Hoover and prove technology sucks.

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30. Mar 2010, 10:34 PM	#3 (permalink)
HeWhoRocks Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Mostly planet Earth Posts: 323	Thanks MC.

31. Mar 2010, 06:49 PM	#4 (permalink)
chris.p Foundation Editor Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Kent, UK Posts: 1,634	I found that when a USB drive was inserted into an infected drive with a rootkit, an extra file was placed on the drive, called autorun.inf Removing that file did not affect the USB stick operation in any way. So I guess if the drive is writeable, yes, a virus file can be written onto it. I know there is at least one app to deal with this kind of thing - for example by disabling autorun on any newly-inserted drive - so there are solutions. Or set the drive to read-only if this is possible?