48 per cent of SMBs are infected by worms each year according to a report published by security vendor PandaLabs.

The Second International SMB Security Barometer report (PDF here) surveyed 10,470 companies across Europe, Latin America and North America and found that a third of attacks came from malware capable of spreading via USB.

According to Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs, “At present, much of the malware in circulation has been designed to distribute through these devices. Not only does it copy itself to these gadgets, but it also runs automatically when a USB device is connected to a computer, infecting the system practically transparently to the user.”

There are now so many devices on the market that can be connected via USB to a computer: digital cameras, cell phones, MP3 or MP4 players,” added Corrons. “Obviously this is very convenient for users, yet all these devices have memory cards or internal memories and therefore it is very easy for your cell phone, say, to be carrying a virus without your knowledge”.

Panda Security has developed a free product called Panda USB Vaccine which the company says offers a double layer of preventive protection, disabling the AutoRun feature on computers as well as on USB drives and other devices.

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