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TAILS Linux 1.8 is out (Dec 15, 2015)

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USB Unsafe? (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-12-26 15:53 (#YTR0)

Still no way to write-protect a USB drive at all, right?

Unless you use a finalized CDR (not rewriteable) and happen to find a device still equipped with a drive, it seems any pretense of inviobility of your portable boot medium is illusory. Yes?

Re: USB Unsafe? (Score: 1)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-12-26 21:41 (#YVCY)

There are options, they just aren't cheap...

http://www.cru-inc.com/products/wiebetech/usb_writeblocker/

Re: USB Unsafe? (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-12-31 02:06 (#Z71F)

Thanks as always, EV. 200,bucks, eh? Man I miss Scotch tape over the floppy notch.

There's an $18 DIY version at http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-and-Effective-USB-Write-Blocker/

But now I wonder if just bringing a small external CD drive would be better/easier. Maybe there's a miniCD sized reader? Nope, apparently not. Safety and paranoia take the big bucks.

Hmm another approach is imaging more or less disposable 512MB-2GB sticks and just tossing or possibly refloormatting later....

Re: USB Unsafe? (Score: 1)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2016-01-01 07:11 (#ZA9W)

They still make a few USB flash thumb drives with write-protect switches:

http://amazon.com/Kanguru-SS3/dp/B008OGNM8E/

And you can mount the devices read-only, or otherwise disable writing in software:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/registry-hack-to-disable-writing-to-usb-drives/

Not perfect, like a write-blocker, but probably usable, and much better than nothing.

Re: USB Unsafe? (Score: 1, Interesting)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-01-02 17:17 (#ZDV3)

Hey, the "Netac" one is only 9 bucks on Amazon. Now we're getting somewhere!

Thanks again Viper.

Moderation

Time Reason Points Voter
2016-02-17 09:05 Interesting +1 hyper@pipedot.org

Junk Status

Marked as [Not Junk] by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2016-01-29 08:06