McAfee Signs Deal To Secure USB Drives

In an effort to block malware from spreading via USB drives, McAfee Tuesday announced that it has signed deals with a number of secure USB manufacturers to ship McAfee security software on their devices.

According to McAfee, when a secure USB drive running its anti-malware software gets plugged into a PC, the built-in software will automatically scan the PC for malware. If any is found, the software will block any file transfers to the USB device.

"Conventional USB drives and other removable storage devices can allow viruses, worms and other malicious code to penetrate systems," said David Scholtz, senior vice president of worldwide strategic alliances for McAfee, in a statement. "The combination of McAfee anti-virus technology with our OEM partner offerings provides the comprehensive layers of protection required to protect data from loss or leakage, and prevent the spread of malware."

McAfee said it now has deals with two-thirds of the world's secured USB manufacturers -- Hagiwara, Kingston Digital Inc, MXI Security, Rocky Mountain Ram, SanDisk, SPYRUS and Yoggie Security Systems -- to install the malware scanning and blocking software on their secure USB devices. Presumably, those manufacturers will also ensure that their own USB devices start off malware-free, unlike promotional (and not secure) malware-infected USB drives shipped by IBM to security conference-goers earlier this year.