Need Virus App to Scan USB Thumb Drives

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Taylor M Author

Level 4

1,403 points

Need Virus App to Scan USB Thumb Drives

Any suggestions for virus software that can scan USB thumb drives for viruses and other malicious stuff?

(2x) MacBook Pro (Late 2008), Mac OS X (10.5.5), Used to have 12" PB, G5 & G4 Tower, 2 original MBPs

Posted on Jan 19, 2009 9:06 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 19, 2009 9:12 AM in response to Taylor M

Technically you don't need any such software, as there no viruses that run on Mac OS.

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Answer 2

Jan 19, 2009 9:21 AM in response to Taylor M

Hi Taylor M;

If you are worried about Conficker.B worm which is capable of using USB drives to propagate, since it attacks SVCHOST.EXE and then modifies the Registry neither of which you have on an OS X system, it can't harm your system.

Allan

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Answer 3

Network 23

Level 6

12,333 points

Jan 19, 2009 9:24 AM in response to Taylor M

Although there are no viruses for Mac OS X, assuming you don't want to be a carrier of Windows viruses or have your own Windows virtual machines infected, ClamXav is a free solution. You can set it to "scan inserted disks."

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Answer 4

Taylor M Author

Level 4

1,403 points

Jan 20, 2009 1:23 PM in response to Taylor M

Thank you all for your feedback. I am aware that my Mac cannot be infected itself. I live in Africa and swap thumb drives with Africans constantly. I do no know where they have been, what computers they are inserting them in, etc. I want to be sure that any thumb drive I have lent out can be cleaned so that if I give it out again and someone plugs it into a personal computer, the virus will not infect that new computer.

It's a big problem in this part of the world, viruses spreading via thumb drives.

Any other suggestions of apps that can scan and clean off viruses from thumb drives would be very helpful. Thanks.

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Answer 5

Taylor M Author

Level 4

1,403 points

Mar 17, 2009 11:54 AM in response to Taylor M

Roxio's (overdue) update to 8.0.5 and 9.0.5 fixes the problem and allows for burning DVD-R disks on the newest Apple computers.

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