Track USB devices used in your computer

Nowadays USB is something so common that we tend to forget that many years back, we were all using serial and parallel ports for printers, modems, scanners, mouse and etc... USB was devised to help retire all serial and parallel ports since these were not standardized and required a multitude of device drivers to be developed and maintained. It was troublesome because if you didn't get it running, you have to troubleshoot it and then restart your computer hoping that when you get in to Windows, it'll work. Otherwise you'll have to go through the step of fixing and rebooting.

USB can connect computer peripherals such as mouse devices, keyboards, PDAs, gamepads and joysticks, scanners, digital cameras and printers. For many devices such as scanners and digital cameras, USB has become the standard connection method. USB is also used extensively to connect non-networked printers; USB simplifies connecting several printers to one computer. In 2004, there were about 1 billion USB devices in the world. Imagine that! USB ports can be very dangerous because Windows offers NO protection at all.

Think about this, when you walk off from your desk for a cup of coffee, anyone in your office can walk to your desk, plug in their USB flash drive to your office computer and copy your personal data, or your work project. Of course you can lock your computer but you cannot guarantee that you'll lock it without fail whenever you're out of your desk. There are also U3 smart technology on some USB flash drive that can autorun programs when it's plugged in. There are ways to hack the U3 USB flash drive to let it autorun programs you desire. It is possible that when a hacked U3 USB flash drive is plugged in, it automatically extracts all your username, passwords and sensitive information within seconds.

So now you know the danger of USB ports but I won't be talking about security it today. Before securing it, you first need to know what kind of USB device you've plugged in before on your computer. With USBDeview, you can lists all USB devices that currently connected to your computer, as well as all USB devices that you previously used.



For each USB device, extended information is displayed: Device name/description, device type, serial number (for mass storage devices), the date/time that device was added, VendorID, ProductID, and more... USBDeview also allows you to uninstall USB devices that you previously used, and disconnect USB devices that are currently connected to your computer. You can also use USBDeview on a remote computer, as long as you login to that computer with admin user.

USBDeview is released as freeware and it works on Windows 2000/XP/2003. Windows 98/ME is not supported. As for Vista, it's not mentioned but no harm trying. If you see a USB device especially USB flash drive that has been plugged in but you don't remember or recognize it, you must be cautious and change all your passwords to prevent unnecessary problems.

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