However, for the uninitiated, here is the lowdown: USB stands for Universal Serial Bus and cutting through all the technical stuff, all you need to know is that it is a type of technology that enables data transfer from one device to another which is equipped with a USB port. The USB port is the place where a USB device is inserted. It is by inserting a USB device that data is transferred. The most popular form of USB device is the USB flash drive, more commonly called simply a flash drive, or a pen drive. Flash drives are generally sold with different storage capacities, such as 1 GB, 2 GB, 4GB, 8 GB etc. For a short trip, data that can be fitted on a 4 GB flash drive should suffice, as it amounts to around 1000 songs, 3 to 4 movies, or a couple of games. For extra storage, one always has the option of external hard disks, but these come in much larger capacities such as 120 GB, 250 GB, etc. and are a bit expensive as well, so a normal flash drive serves the purpose and is more feasible.

Internet Cafe Considerations

While traveling, one cannot be assured of always having a personal computer. Though a few high end hotels provide personal laptops to guests, not everyone can afford to stay at such hotels. If you don’t have access to a personal computer, you have no choice but to go to a cyber cafe, or a public internet center where you use a computer for internet for a pre-paid price usually fixed per hour. Browsing at an internet cafe brings a mixture of many things that need to be considered. First, the computers at such centers are shared, and thus you never know which computer has some kind of malicious software installed on it. Malicious software may vary from key logging programs that track your keystrokes and send the information to the planter of the program, to computer viruses that will affect your flash drive causing the loss of data. This is one area where proper caution needs to be exercised or else you can kiss your flash drive, and most important of all, the data that is inside, goodbye.

Precautions

Most of the time, just taking simple precautions will help preserve your valuable data and protect it from getting lost or being misused. The two most common ways by which data is lost are by the tracking of your activity by malicious programs, and peeping toms behind your back, who are always on the prowl with hopes of getting someone’s password, or getting a hint of what you are doing. Most internet centers have computers in a row, and privacy is not ensured to a great extent. Though the incidents of people actually peeping at your screen are a rare happening, it does happen, and it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

Also, as the computer is used by some random person after you, it is always better to keep the following in mind while using a computer at a public internet center. First, always log out of anything that the machine is logged in. This does not mean just clicking on the “log out” button and leaving. You must double check that you have logged out successfully. This simple yet very important step will help a lot to protect you. Also, many browsers offer an option to save the username and password data, be sure to uncheck all such options before logging in, as you do not want any other person to be able to access your information. Second, never leave your computer unsupervised for even a single minute.

If you have to leave, be sure to log out of everything and close all browser windows. Your leaving the computer unsupervised may result in strangers accessing your private documents and files, which you don’t want to happen. The third thing to remember is to clear all history and temporary files and downloaded files when you are through and before you leave. These can be removed by just checking out options of most browsers. The fourth thing to do is to make sure that online financial transactions are avoided at public computers. Because you will have to enter highly confidential data such as credit card number, it is not recommended to use a public computer for these activities. By following these simple precautions you will help ensure you have a safe browsing experience.

Protecting The Flash Drive

Now moving on to how to protect your flash drive, it mostly involves a basic step: password-protect your USB flash drive. Most people while traveling tend to insert their flash drives into every computer they use, thus increasing the chance of their flash drive getting infected by a high degree. The infection can be due to a virus or malicious software installed by a person wishing to access your private files. Also, if your flash drive gets stolen or lost, protecting it with a password will prevent others from getting access to your files easily. Protecting your flash drive with a password is a simple task. There are many free software programs over the internet that give you detailed instructions on how to protect your USB flash drive. These can be found by doing a simple search on any search engine. This easy step is a must in today’s highly dangerous online world and one cannot risk losing even a bit of one’s personal and sensitive data. Do it now. Password-protect your USB drives, use the above precautions, and have a happy and safe travel knowing that you are keeping your data secure.

A Windows session would be locked by simply removing the connected USB drive from the computer system. Connecting the USB flash drive again would unlock the system. This without having to enter a password to do so.

Predator needs to prepare an USB flash drive before it can be used for that purpose. This process writes a keyfile on the USB device that is read by the software program whenever a computer needs to be unlocked.

The user needs to specify a backup password as well. This backup password can be used to unlock a session if the USB flash drive is damaged or not available at all.

Predator will not harm any files that reside on the USB flash drive during the process. It offers several additional options that are used to configure the process in more detail. This includes enabling support for multiple monitors, setting the screen darkness, hiding all desktop items or minimizing all windows.

The screen will go black whenever the user removes the USB drive from the computer system.

Predator will write events to a log file that can be used to analyze attempts to access the computer system. The software will also change the keys on the USB drives frequently to prevent that a copied keyfile can be used to access the system.

Predator can also be configured to sound an alarm whenever someone tries to access the PC. The software is a viable alternative for users who (have to) lock their Windows sessions frequently.

The .spotlight-v100 and .trashes folders were created automatically by an Apple Macintosh computer system that the USB flash drive was plugged in before. These two folders are automatically created whenever a USB flash drive is connected to a computer system running an Apple Mac operating system. Spotlight is a indexing process on the Mac that will save the information that are gathered in the .spotlight-v100 directory.

The .trashes folder on the other hand is simply a trash folder for the specific drive which is also created by Apple Macintosh computer systems. Windows users can simply delete both hidden directories to free up disk space.

There is however no need to worry that these two folders have been created by malicious software.

Existing rules can be modified or removed and new rules added. Supported are file and folders names plus the wildcard. It is theoretically possible to clean all files that are stored on USB flash drives by adding a *.* rule. This could be interesting for users who have to clean a lot of USB flash drives or want to work with empty drives on a specific computer system.

The software program will run hidden and cleanup connected USB flash drives automatically. These settings can be changed in the options of the program so that a confirmation is required before the data is deleted on connected USB flash drives.

USB Drive Fresher is a free software program for the Windows operating system. It is available for download at the developer’s website. Supported operating systems are Windows XP, Windows Vista and several other Microsoft operating system. It is likely that the program will also run under Windows 7.

Computer vaccination referring to disabling autorun completely from removable media like usb flash drives or optical drives like CDs or DVD drives. To enable the protection of the computer system from programs that are auto-executed if usb flash drives or CDs or DVDs are inserted into the computer drives.

A click on vaccinate computer will immediately disable autorun on the computer system. The USB drive vaccination option on the other hand will disable autorun from selected usb flash drives. The drives have to be connected to the computer system before the computer can be protected. Every connected usb flash drive will be listed in a pulldown menu. A click on vaccinate usb will prevent autorun from being executed from that usb flash drive.

It should be noted that it is not possible to undo the autorun protection of a selected usb flash drive in the computer system using the security software. Another limitation is that it will only work on usb flash drives that have been formatted with the FAT or FAT32 file system.

Panda Research USB Vaccine increases the security of a computer system in regards to usb flash drives and other media with autorun capabilities. The security software has been tested under Windows Vista, Windows XP and even Windows 2000. It will work on all