USB flash drives are a security concern for many not just because they can carry harmful viruses, but because it is very easy for someone to quickly and discreetly slip a Flash drive in a USB port and transfer data illegitimately from a PC.
Disabling the USB ports completely is one thing, but doing that can limit the functionality of your connected devices.
A better option is to use “USB Disk Access Manager”, a very simple FREE tool that lets you do three things; ‘Allow Read & Write’, ‘Allow Read Only’, and ‘Disable USB Disks Detection’ altogether.
Update: if you are looking for this functionality, a better option may be another program called URC Access Modes.
The three options are as follows:
Allow read and write: will allow USB devices to function normally.
Allow read only: will prevent users from downloading or uploading any data to the PC, which is great if you only want people just to be able to read stuff from their USB flash drives and not be able to write anything to them.
Disable USB Disk Detection: is even more useful as it prevents flash drives from being discovered by the PC, a good option if you want to completely keep your PC away from flash drives.
The verdict:
USB Disk Access Manager is a great tool. Not only is it completely free, but it provides peace of mind and the knowledge that you can leave your PC alone without the risk of people using flash drives inappropriately and/or infecting your PC!
Let us know what you think of this one in the comments section below.
Download USB Disk Access Manager (Windows)
