Tip Of The Day! - Prevent USB Drives from Spreading Viruses

When you stick a thumb drive infected with a worm like Conficker/Downadup into a clean system, the normally handy AutoPlay feature launches the worm and spreads the infection. 

You can prevent this by flipping the master switch. 

Here's how:

1. Click on the "Start" button and pick "Run."
2. Enter the text GPEDIT.MSC and press Enter. After a moment, the Group Policy editor window will open.
3. In the left panel, double-click on "Computer Configuration."
4. Double-click on "Administrative Templates."
5. Double-click on "System."
6. In the right panel near the bottom of the list, double-click on "Turn off autoplay."/
7. The default setting is the "Not configured." Put a bullet in "Enabled."
8. Make sure "Turn off Autoplay on:" is set to "All drives."
9. Click on "Apply," and then "OK".
10. Close the Group Policy editor window.

Source: http://www.sans.org/tip_of_the_day.php#1257