When browsing the internet, to download programs or any other file, or to check our mail, we take precautions to avoid viruses. But we must bear in mind that these are not the only ways by which we can infect our computer.
It is true that the internet is full of content and dangers that can negatively affect the data and applications stored on our PC. That is why, as a general rule, we try to avoid certain dangerous pages, download applications from unreliable sources, or not open strange email attachments. However, there are also other ways in which malware can reach our drives without us noticing.
One of the most common are external storage units that we sometimes connect to our equipment without thinking about the potential dangers. A clear example of all this can be found in the usual USB memories that we share with friends and family. Although a priori these come from fully trusted users, that does not mean that they are 100% free of malicious code . In fact, when we least expect it, sometimes we find that our antivirus shows a danger message as soon as we connect any of these USB memories.
We must be careful because the dangers related to malicious code that arrive over the internet are similar to those we face with local devices. Therefore, in this situation, we must take some precautions to prevent viruses from that memory from reaching our PC data .
Prevent a virus from a USB memory from reaching the PC
It goes without saying that the first thing to do is be wary of storage devices, such as USB sticks, from unreliable users. However, the safety of these items is not always 100% guaranteed. In the event that we connect a device with these characteristics to our computer and the antivirus warns us that it is infected, this is what we have to do.
Therefore, at this point the first thing to do is delete or quarantine the files detected as malicious. On some occasions the antivirus itself will be able to eliminate the viruses detected in these files, be they executable or of any other type. But this is not always the case, so otherwise the security software itself will propose its immediate elimination or quarantine, as we mentioned.
Due to all this and as it is easy to imagine, if the malware has not been eliminated from that USB memory, under no circumstances should we try to open or execute those files. Next, whether or not the antivirus has cleaned the device , we recommend carrying out a deep analysis of that USB memory. In this way we make sure that all traces of malicious code or virus have been erased before opening any contained file.
In the event that the security solution is not able to completely clean this storage device, which is common, we should completely format the memory . That would be an effective way to make sure it is clean so that it can be used again in the future.
