How do I disable usb storage?

In Linux the risk of viruses are small to nonexistent, however USB sticks automatically mount for reading and writing regardless. There's an easy way in recent Ubuntu distributions to disable USB storage devices. Simply blacklist the kernel driver:

echo "blacklist usb-storage" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Then update the initramfs

sudo update-initramfs -u

After that, nobody can use a USB memory stick in that computer, but still allows the administrator(s) to manually load the module and use it.

source is here: http://www.ossramblings.com/disabling_usb_storage_in_linux

Another way which is more selective is to note that users who are members of the plugdev group are allowed to access pluggable storage devices so you could just remove any users you don't want to use USB sticks from that group.

source: here

Solution verified in Ubuntu 16.04 (Kernel 4.4.0-31-generic).

We have to blacklist the uas (usb as scsi) driver along with the usb_storage driver in case the just blacklisting the usb_storage driver is not working for you. The uas kernel module is loading the usb_storage but seems to be ignoring the blacklisting of the usb_storage driver in modprobe.d.

sudo echo -e "blacklist uas\nblacklist usb_storage" > /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist_usbdrive.conf

Just rename storage to storage-old:

mv /lib/modules/3.2.0-35-generic-pae/kernel/drivers/usb/storage /lib/modules/3.2.0-35-generic-pae/kernel/drivers/usb/storage-old

change the kernel ver in 3.2.0-35-generic-pae according to yours