Flash Drives & Word Viruses

Write-protect a flash drive to prevent virus attacks from an infected computer.

Amidst its widely recognized advantage of being a portable storage device when working on files for transfer to various computers, a flash drive also has a high risk of transferring computer viruses from one computer to another. Word files are highly susceptible to these viruses as such documents are commonly exchanged by multiple users.

Macro Viruses

According to the Microsoft website, a macro virus is a computer virus that uses an application's own macro programming language to distribute itself and potentially inflict damage to a computer document or even other applications on the computer. A macro virus commonly attacks Word files. Infected Word files can be harmful to both the Windows and Macintosh platforms.

Document Retrieval from an Infected Flash Drive

Depending on the type of Word virus in the flash drive, it is possible to save an infected document through a computer's antivirus program. There are also some software tools such as the Smart USB Flash Drive Blocker, USBProtect and Autorun Killer that block flash drives from copying automated virus files and virus-infected files into your computer while allowing safe copying of clean files for retrieval.

Virus Prevention in Flash Drives

Investing in quality USB flash drives is the first line of defense for prevention of virus attacks. Aside from applications that detect any virus attack in the flash drive, there are also those that come with write protector switches so that users can make them read-only drives; the protector switch prevents a virus from writing itself into a drive upon its insertion to an infected computer. There are also available write-protect and antivirus applications specifically targeted for virus prevention on flash drives.

References

• Futech: How to Prevent Virus from Entering Your USB or Pen Drive (Flash Drive)
• Addictive Tips: How To Protect USB Drive From Virus When Attached To Infected Computer
• Microsoft Support: What to Do If Your Word for Mac Mas a Macro Virus
• My Tech World: Remove Write Protection On USB Flash Drive
• Trouble Fixers: Block Virus Transfer From USB Flash Drive
• Microsoft Support: Frequently Asked Questions About Word Macro Viruses

Resources

• Free PC Clinic: Viruses Infecting from USB Flash Drive
• University of Pennsylvania - Department of Linguistics: Basics of Word Macro Viruses
• Internet Tools for Lawyers: MS Word Virus Alert
• Indiana University - University Information Technology Services: What is Microsoft Word's Macro Virus Protection Tool, and How Do I Activate It?
• CQuirke's Win9x Page: Unknown Macro Viruses
• Norton: Norton Article Library - Beware of Word Doc Viruses