Sandisk puts antivirus software on flash drive

Sandisk is launching a number of new USB sticks with a McAfee virus scanner on board. The flash manufacturer hopes that users will spread fewer viruses thanks to the antivirus software.

The scanner is included with Sandisk Cruzer Enterprise series USB sticks, reports Techworld. The software will automatically launch and scan the PC for malware. If the computer is infected, the scanner will alarm and no files will be written to the portable flash memory. The user must purchase a new license of 19.95 euros from McAfee every year.

The virus scanner would automatically download its updates and save them on the USB stick. The Cruzer Enterprise presumably uses the U3 standard, co-developed by Sandisk, to store the required data locally. To increase the security of files stored on the flash drive, hardware 256bit AES encryption is applied. Sandisk wants to put the ‘secure’ USB sticks on the market before the end of the year with capacities of 1, 2, 4 and 8GB. The prices are still unknown.