How to easily block / disable USB ports on your PC
Privacy has become a priority nowadays and it is equally important to protect yourself from the threats of “data theft” from your computer. This need is even stronger in the corporate environment where there are dozens or hundreds of computers with documents containing sensitive data, and anyone using a USB stick or an external hard drive connected to a USB port on the computer could download and copy all this data.
How to solve this problem and prevent data from being copied via the computer’s USB port? Is there a way to block or disable the PC’s USB ports?
The answer to this question is YES. Just as there are ways to protect data from the USB stick, there are various ways to protect the data on your PC and prevent it from being “stolen” or “copied” to external storage devices.
For example, you can use a program called USB LOCK to prevent the opening of files and folders on your PC, or you can disable the USB ports and therefore prevent data from being copied through them.
How to block or disable the PC’s USB ports with USB Lock
USB Lock is a data loss prevention tool that prevents data from being copied to USB drives (smartphones, tablets, external hard drives, USB pen drives, etc.) and even CDs/DVDs or other portable devices (printers, modems, etc.).
Once installed, USB Lock allows you to lock all drives and devices that do not belong to you. With this program you can prevent data theft and share your PC with anyone without fear of this happening!
USB Lock is a simple USB security software that has a powerful Endpoint DLP suite that helps you lock your PC’s USB ports, make your DVD/CD burner read-only, block certain websites, prohibit the opening of certain programs and disable other devices. In short, a complete suite designed to protect your digital files. But let’s see in detail how it works.
Step 1. Download and install USB Lock
The program supports all Windows systems. CLICK HERE to download then demo version and install on your PC.
After installing and starting the program, the following screen will open where you will have to set a security password and an email address (useful for recovering the password in case it is lost or forgotten):
The main program window will open immediately after:
Step 2. Disable or block USB ports
To prevent data from being copied to any USB device, it is essential to block and disable the USB ports on your computer. How? Using USB Lock, you just need to follow the two steps highlighted in the figure above, that is, from the “USB & CD Lock” section, select the “Disable writing to USB Disk” box. In this way, any external pen drive or hard disk can be connected to the USB ports of your PC to see the files contained therein, but it will be impossible to copy data to that USB device!
If, in addition to disabling “writing” in the USB devices connected to the computer, you also want to prevent them from being opened “for reading”, then all you have to do is also select the “Disable reading USB Disk” box:
And if that wasn’t enough, you can also disable the USB ports in the case of connecting an Android & iPhone cell phone / smartphone, by selecting the relevant box:
Step 3. (Optional) Whitelist your USB devices
In order for the USB port blocking not to affect your activities and your work, you can always use Gilisoft USB Lock to make these ports active only and exclusively for your USB devices. All you have to do is:
- Connect your USB device to any USB port on your PC
- Click on ADD at the bottom right of the program
- Select the USB device to put in the “white list”
That’s it! As you can see, thanks to USB Lock you will be able to manage all your USB devices and disable USB ports for those devices that are not recognized.
From the USB Monitor section you can also control all attempts to access and connect USB devices to the computer’s USB ports. CLICK HERE to download then free demo version of USB LOCK and install now on your PC.
