Posts Tagged ‘USB’

« Older Entries

Protect your computer from flash drive infection with Bitdefender USB Immunizer

May 2nd, 2012
Share

here are a number of ways in which a virus or malware infection can find its way onto a computer, and if USB drives are used to transport files from one machine to another, this represents a security risk that could be exploited by malicious software. Part of the problem arises from the fact that USB drives can be configure to autorun just like optical media, but this is something you can tackle with Bitdefender USB Immunizer.

This free tool is not new, but it has undergone and overhaul that makes it easier to work with multiple USB drives and it enables you to prevent USB drives from being automatically launched. This is achieved by creating a read-only autorun.inf file in the root of the drive which is left blank so that it serves no real function. Because the file is read-only, it cannot be edited by malware looking to launch itself when your USB drive is plugged in.

Relatedly, the fact that an autorun,inf file exists means that another one cannot be created so there is no way malicious program can be made to run without your permission. Should you decide that you ever want to use your USB drive in conjunction with a legitimate autorun.inf file you will need to delete the one that has been created by the app. Because of the security measures that have been put in place, you will need to delete the existing file using a computer running Linux or OSX.

The most recent update to the app features a redesigned interface that makes it easier to protect several USB drives in one fell swoop, and there is also the ability to automatically prevent all drives from autorunning. This working by simply disabling the system wide autorun feature, and while this is something that you could do manually, it is a handy addition to a useful security tool.

Source:http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/299005,protect-your-computer-from-flash-drive-infection-with-bitdefender-usb-immunizer.aspx

Comments Off »

Posted in Hardware News

Tags:

USB Wireless Gamepad – Turbo Master

March 22nd, 2012
Share

The USB Wireless Gamepad. In order to completely fulfill the need of every gamer to extend his/her play time, this gamepad is designed with a high-capacity rechargeable 1000 mAH lithium-ion battery. You can also recharge your gamepad while you play.

Thanks to its 2.4GHz wireless technology, this wireless gamepad gives you quicker responses and the freedom to move up to 10 m away from your PC. Its dual vibration motors let you feel every hit, every explosion and every crash right in your very own hands – offering you a much more realistic and interactive gaming experience.

This gamepad also comes with an extremely user- friendly layout with 12 programmable buttons, 8-way D-pad, and two analog sticks that give you full control over the slightest movement during your game. You can even switch between analog and 8-way D-pad mode with one analog button. You instantly feel the power of a professional gamer who is equipped with full gaming control and unlimited playtime!

The USB Wireless Gamepad comes with a two- year limited warranty, with an MSRP at 49.90 USD and 36.95 EUR, excluding VAT.

Source:http://hexus.net/gaming/items/hardware/36781-usb-wireless-gamepad-turbo-master/

Comments Off »

Posted in Hardware News

Tags:

Windows To Go delivers Windows 8 corporate images via USB

March 9th, 2012
Share

With its Windows 8 feature called Windows To Go, Microsoft has turned the quaint USB stick into the key to transforming employees’ personal desktops into Windows 8 corporate desktops.

Though Microsoft claims that Windows To Go enables bring-your-own-device (BYOD) programs, it may be quite limited in the types of devices for which it will be useful.

Windows To Go lets IT boot a full, managed corporate Windows 8 image, along with users’ business apps, data and settings, to a Universal Serial Bus (USB) device. End users can then plug that USB stick into their own PCs or laptops to run a corporate Windows 8 desktop.

Using Windows To Go, “IT organizations can support the ‘Bring Your Own PC trend’ and businesses can give contingent staff access to the corporate environment without compromising security,” Microsoft said in a blog post on Tuesday.

But there are still plenty of unanswered questions about the technology. It is still unclear whether Windows To Go will actually work on popular non-Windows devices such as tablets. During a session on Windows To Go at its Build show last year, Microsoft provided a developer preview that could only be booted to x64 systems with a Windows Vista or Windows 7 logo.

This week, Microsoft offered no new information on whether the final version of Windows To Go will work with iPads, Android tablets, netbooks or other non-Windows devices.

Microsoft did say on its TechNet site that Windows To Go will not work on its Windows 8 ARM tablets. In addition, Windows 8 on ARM won’t connect to corporate domains, so enterprises that planned to integrate Windows 8 ARM tablets into their IT environments won’t be able to do so easily. (The Apple iPad doesn’t connect to corporate domains, either.)

“I can understand them not supporting Windows To Go on ARM, as it is a more locked-down version of Windows 8 anyway — so not really set up for enterprise users that are more likely to use Windows To Go,” said Ben Lowe, a consultant for the Tribal Labs blog who tested Windows To Go.

Although non-ARM Windows 8 tablets will also exist, it’s unclear whether Windows To Go will run on them.

Microsoft didn’t mention running Windows To Go on Apple’s Mac, but at least one developer has booted it on a MacBook Air.

While Windows To Go will certainly give companies a way to turn employees’ personal Windows machines into corporate Windows 8 desktops, it may not be much use in BYOD shops.

MORE ON WINDOWS ON ARM:
What Windows 8 on ARM means for tablets and desktops

Windows 8 on ARM poses unique challenges, benefits

Lowe said he initially hoped that Windows To Go would provide “work/travel/home device nirvana,” where he could have an ARM-based tablet set up for the family that he could plug his work Windows To Go USB into and use for business trips and meetings.

Lowe said he also imagined plugging the USB into a dumb PC to turn it into a Windows 8 desktop. “Unfortunately, I can’t imagine that flicking between ARM and 64-bit hardware would ever work,” he said.

Still, the Windows To Go concept does hold some appeal.

“I use the law library at a local law school from time to time,” said Michael Cherry, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, an independent analysis firm in Kirkland, Wash. “Instead of carrying my PC there, I could just take a USB drive with Windows To Go and use one of the computers they have in the library.”

In addition, questions about Windows licensing remain unanswered. Since Windows To Go is a corporate desktop feature, it may require Microsoft Enterprise Licenses and Software Assurance. Licensing will also determine use on non-Microsoft devices. Some analysts also wonder whether companies will have to buy a second copy of Windows.

“The answer to the licensing questions will answer how useful the [Windows To Go] approach is,” Cherry said.

Microsoft would not address questions about Windows To Go licensing this week.

As for management, once the Windows 8 USB drives are in use, IT managers can service the Windows image the same way they would handle a laptop or PC, using Group Policy or software distribution mechanisms. When a user logs on, the policies are pushed down to them, according to Microsoft.

IT can also encrypt Windows To Go by using passwords and BitLocker protection — which would minimize concerns about lost or stolen USB sticks.

Using the Windows To Go preview
Loading a Windows 8 Consumer Preview ISO image onto a USB 2 stick takes over four hours — plus a couple more hours to configure, Lowe said. He added that it would take far less time to load Windows 8 onto a USB 3.0 — which Microsoft recommends using.

Microsoft has not published hardware requirements, but it said during the session at Build that Windows To Go should be used on systems that minimize hub depth to external ports, firmware that supports reliable USB boot and Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) firmware that supports USB-class boot entries. It requires at least 32-GB drives.

Each boot on new computer can take 20 minutes to install drivers. After booting from the USB, Lowe said, the user interface is sluggish for roughly five minutes.

“Once it’s all there, then it seems quite snappy but really struggles again when trying to open apps — so much so that some Metro apps just won’t load,” he said. “Windows Update doesn’t seem to work either.”

Lowe added that these issues will likely be resolved before the final release.

Source:http://searchenterprisedesktop.techtarget.com/news/2240146508/Windows-To-Go-delivers-Windows-8-corporate-images-via-USB

Comments Off »

Posted in Hardware News

Tags:

IBM puts secure Windows, Linux in the cloud via USB

March 8th, 2012
Share

IBM designed the Secure Enterprise Desktop technology for businesses that want to secure employee-owned devices while making sure that all the company’s data is backed up to a corporate or IBM-operated datacentre. Bring your own device (BYOD) is an thorny topic for IT managers under pressure to allow corporate use of devices owned by employees.

IBM’s Secure Enterprise Desktop technology was shown to ZDNet UK at CeBIT in Hanover on Wednesday. It uses a USB stick with its own HTTPS stack, bootloader and proprietary code to create a secure connection between a partitioned drive on the client computer and a remotely located server. IBM was hoping to find businesses at the show to test the prototype and ultimately buy the service.
USB device

The bootloader is run from a processor on the USB device. If the client PC is compromised at a deep level, the user is protected, according to IBM. The technology cuts out the host operating system and hardware, and authenticates directly to a secure server.

“You take a computer, you boot from this device, this device establishes via its own processor a connection to the server, then there’s a two-way authentication so the server knows who you are and you know the server is the server,” Paolo Scotton, a computer security scientist at IBM’s research labs in Zurich, told ZDNet UK. “Once you establish this connection you download a small [kernel-based virtual machine] hypervisor.”

Once the hypervisor is downloaded, the computer lets the user select a Linux or Windows operating system to be provisioned from the remotely hosted server. IBM has developed a driver for the kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) hypervisor that “monitors access from the OS to the disk and brings down only the blocks that are needed”, Scotton said, which helps the operating system be more responsive.

As the user performs actions on the client device data is written in an AES-256 encrypted format to the partitioned disk and any changes are replicated back to the cloud-hosted operating system. If the USB stick is removed, the operating system instantly shuts down as the connection to the remote server has been cut. If this happens, the person can re-insert the stick, which then re-authenticates with the server and lets the person use the OS again.

There is also an option to download the host operating system from the cloud so the person can use the client PC without an internet connection. Over a gigabit connection a full download of a populated Windows 7 operating system should take around 10 minutes, Scotton said.

On the infrastructure side, the technology requires a Linux server with Apache and OpenLDAP, an open-source implementation of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, which can be hosted either in an IBM or private datacentre. The client side requires a Windows or Linux computer with a 64-bit processor.

IBM is experimenting with a BitTorrent-based method for letting multiple distributed servers collectively pass the OS image to the client computer. This speeds loading times and adds redundancy, Scotton said. The technology is innately scalable, he said, as the OS is accessed on a block-by-block basis.

IBM hopes to release the technology as a commercial product within a year, and is looking for businesses to carry out test pilots, ZDNet UK understands.

Source:http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/security-management/2012/03/07/ibm-puts-secure-windows-linux-in-the-cloud-via-usb-40095212/

Comments Off »

Posted in Hardware News

Tags:

Computer Size Of USB Stick Now Available For Pre Order

February 29th, 2012
Share

FXI’s Cotton Candy is a computer no larger than a packet of gum. According to The Verge, it features a 1.2GHz dual core processor, 1GB of RAM and a Quad-Core ARM Mali-400MP GPU. There’s WiFi and up to 64GB of expandable memory via a micro SD card on board too.

On one end is a MicroUSB port which feeds power to the device, while the other end features an HDMI-out port, essentially converting any modern display/TV into a capable monitor.

Users register online and download their desired operating system, a choice between Ubantu and Android 4.0. If they nominate Android, users will also have access to the Android’s marketplace.

FXI is currently taking pre orders of the device at US$199, with the company’s website claiming it will be available from March 2012.

Source:http://www.channelnews.com.au/Hardware/Industry/B2B9R2A4

Comments Off »

Posted in Hardware News

Tags:

USB cables not so universal

February 23rd, 2012
Share

Device-specific cords and adapters can cause more than a few headaches.
AS YET, science has no satisfactory explanation for the migratory habits of the USB cable. All we can say with certainty is that one day the USB cable you desperately need to attach to your printer, speaker, external hard drive and so on won’t be where you expect to find it. It might never turn up again.
The peripatetic quality of these seemingly harmless items can be hazardous for computer owners. It is far too easy to trip over one or more of the things in the journey from one’s computer or power adaptor to somewhere else or to bump one’s head while engaged in cable-hunting activities under the desk.
They might also be hazardous to equipment. We were quite alarmed to discover, for instance, that, according to Barnes & Noble, the Nook Color or Nook Tablet e-readers require the use of a dedicated cable and charger. A Nook Simple Touch or Nook 1st Edition power adaptor and USB cable will not only not charge the Nook Color or Nook Tablet, they might actually damage them. We assume this relates more to the power supply than the cable but who knows?
Advertisement: Story continues below
Here in the Bleeding Edge cave, this has meant we have been forced to keep the Nook Tablet’s cable under a particularly close watch. Fortunately, it is easily distinguished from similar cables because on one end it has a horseshoe-shaped LED that lights up when it’s plugged in.
But increasingly, we label USB cables with the handy Dymo LabelManager – which works independently of cables, fortunately – and store them with the device to avoid the exhausting searches when a cable goes missing.
While USB cables are mostly able to be swapped, occasionally we’ve found that some devices – such as the Cybook e-reader and at least one TomTom GPS, for instance – have been carefully designed to reject anything but their particular cable. We have wasted endless hours trying to pair them up again.
The arrival of USB 3.0 complicates things even more. If you want to take advantage of the faster data-transfer times the latest version offers, you have to use a USB 3.0 cable, which usually has a blue connector. Because they have more wires than the standard USB cable, they are more expensive. We priced a one-metre extension lead – USB A (male) to USB socket B (female) – at $5.90 before tax at Radio Parts Group. A two-metre USB 2.0 cable cost $1.80.
There are other irritations with USB. Some devices, such as the otherwise useful DViCO TViX HD set-top box, seem to offer no way of dismounting an external USB drive, so we are constantly forced to scan the drives for errors when we remove them from the DViCO and attach them to a computer.
And that Safely Remove Hardware icon Windows users must deal with every time they want to dismount a drive can drive us to distraction.
It’s not a good idea just to remove the drive – it raises the potential for drive errors or corruption of the USB drivers – but that warning message about the drive being in use can put you through a tedious routine of closing files before you get the go-ahead. Every now and again, the system simply refuses to shut the drive down for removal.
You can shut down every available program and still have Windows resolutely determined to keep the drive in use, forcing you to “try later”.
We downloaded a program recently called USB Safely Remove (bit.ly/8xBCxg), which seems to solve the problem. The feature we most appreciate is the program’s ability to determine which programs or processes have locked the drive, allowing you to terminate them without engaging in guessing games.
It also allows you to name the various drives you might have connected, whereas Windows tends to name everything a “USB mass storage device”. You can also hide devices so you don’t accidentally stop them. And once disconnected, you can reconnect a drive from the program, rather than having to reinsert it. The program describes the process as “Return Device Back!”.
We haven’t had any problems with the 30-day demonstration copy and we think it’s worth the discounted registration fee of $13.93 (usual price $19.90).

Source:http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/computers/usb-cables-not-so-universal-20120222-1tme0.html

Comments Off »

Posted in Hardware News

Tags:

iTwin USB Device Securely Shares Files Over the Internet

January 13th, 2012
Share

iTwin was on hand at CES 2012 to show off Mac support for its self-titled USB device that allows users to share files across an encrypted connection over the Internet. The company was also demonstrating support for multi-iTwin devices.

iTwin Devices Being Paired

iTwin Devices Being Paired

iTwin derives its name from the fact that you need two iTwin devices for it to work. When paired with one another, the devices allow users to share files over the Internet using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256 bit encryption. Plug in one to a Mac or PC, assign it files and folders that you want to be accessible, and when the other device is plugged into a second Mac or PC, those folders and files can then be accessed by that machine.

For instance, if you needed to share a bunch of files with someone in another city, or across the planet, you could pair two iTwins, set up one on your Mac and FedEx the other to your accountant, your publisher, your designer, your work partner, or your mother. With little muss and less fuss, the other person could then plug in the iTwin they received and use, modify, copy, and otherwise access whatever it is they need on their end.

Because the connection is tied to the specific iTwin hardware, it doesn’t matter what Mac or PC the second one is connected to. The user could hop around from machine to machine and leave no trace of those files on the target computer unless they were deliberately and specifically copied over. At the same time, the first iTwin could also be used on different computers, but the folders and files it accesses would be specific to each of those machines.

The key aspects of this tool are that the connection is encrypted with very strong encryption. Also, the files are not being stored on the iTwin, while the encryption and password are stored only on the iTwin. This allows for a level of security in file transfers difficult to replicate.

In the demo we were shown, file browsing was very fast because only the file information and icon are being sent across the connection. Files don’t actually get transmitted across the connection until they are specifically opened.

Mac support was announced in September of 2011, but new for CES is support using multiple iTwin devices. This is aimed at people and businesses with several people with whom they need to trade files. The “iTwin Man” seen below demonstrates the ability to use a USB hub to connect multiple iTwins to one machine at the same time, each one paired to a specific iTwin somewhere else in the world.

Source:http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/itwin_usb_device_securely_shares_files_over_the_internet/

Comments Off »

Posted in Hardware News

Tags:

Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes