In today’s globalized world the competition to be the best is increasing day by day. The software industry is also striving to achieve the highest level. This enables the role of security of data at vivid levels; it could be enterprise or any individual. Any data that is transferred or sent to any client is generally sent through a network. It is very necessary that the channel or network used for the exchange of data or information must be secure enough to be hacked or misused.
Microsoft has announced that it has changed the AutoRun function on all Windows versions, excluding Windows 7. The company has announced that when the update which is KB971029 will be applied, the menu option would change. When the user inserts a USB device to execute the program then the menu option will no longer be seen. But still the standardized menu option that is used to view the files will remain unchanged. The activities of CD and DVD media are unchanged.
This feature has been introduced just to stop malicious infection to travel from one computer to the other through USB drives. This kind of malware was out for many years and is the most important characteristic of Conficker worm. To secure the AutoRun feature, Microsoft is continuously working on it. This feature is the latest step taken by Microsoft. All kinds of USB storage media are being affected including the USB hard drives and also the Flash media. Although the U3 class devices remain unchanged. This is so because of the cryptographic USB keys. So the U3 class devices will still run the older version of AutoRun. So the update is regarded as non-security. This update is also mentioned as important by Microsoft, so this can be understood as the update is applied by default for the clients with proposed settings. This feature is both for the Windows Update and also the Windows Server Update Services.
Microsoft is working continuously to make its product safe and secure. This is one of the many steps taken by Microsoft to enhance the product’s activities and keeping it secure at the same time. This feature is recommended for both the Windows series and the Windows Server 2008. Therefore, using this update would surely help the customer to prevent malicious infection from USBs, but viruses are never ending threats. Software enterprises are continuously working to make the computer secure and safe.
