Usb Flash Drives Revolutionise Portable Storage But Pose Security Risks for Organisations

Over the last few years USB Flash Drives haveconfidential information and abuse their position by
become a must-have item for computer userscopying sensitive data onto a USB Flash Drive. If this
everywhere. We rely on them to transport all kindsdata is later leaked, it could cause embarrassment to
of data including letters, spreadsheets, presentations,the company involved with the possibility of negative
music and even movies. The capacity, physical sizepress coverage, and they may even be subject to
and speed of these drives has increased rapidly, andlegal action. There is also the possibility of a USB
with that prices have come down making them anFlash Drive containing confidential information being
affordable accessory rather than luxury item. Theylost or misplaced by accident. A worst case scenario
have now completely replaced the humble Floppywould be a USB Flash Drive dropping out of the
Disk as the dominant format for re-writeable,pocket of a worker when out on their lunch break;
portable storage, and rightfully so - Floppy Disksthis could mean a database with thousands of
were well past their sell-by date at the turn of therecords of private information falling into the hands
21st century.of unscrupulous people.
But there are some risks associated with such a smallThere is now a solution to the problem of data
device capable of storing vast amounts of data beingleakage - a USB Flash Drive with strong 256-bit AES
kept in the pockets and on the key chains of millionshardware-based encryption. The SanDisk Cruzer
of workers at companies/organisations across theEnterprise, available from Lucid IT Security, is the
world. Let’s take a look at some of these risksanswer IT professionals needing to protect
in detail.information on company-issued USB flash drives have
The first risk is a loss of productivity; workers couldbeen looking for. It is specifically designed to meet
use their USB Flash Drives to bring in software that isthe unique USB security, compliance and
not suitable for the workplace, such as games ormanageability needs of enterprises. Rather than rely
“joke” applications that could causeupon users to secure files, it imposes mandatory
disruption. Employees could also use the fast internetaccess control on all files, storing them in a
access usually provided in the corporate network tohardware-encrypted, password-protected partition.
download illegal or unsavoury material onto their USBThe Cruzer Enterprise is also the first secure USB
Flash Drives that could damage the company’sflash drive to fully support Apple Mac OS X
reputation and potentially cause spyware or adwarecomputers, and can be initialized from either a
infections.Macintosh or a Windows computer. By supporting
The second risk is of workers bringing viruses,both Macintosh and Microsoft Windows
trojans, malware or adware into the workplace onenvironments, IT professionals can more effectively
USB Flash Drives. An example of this would be anuse SanDisk Cruzer Enterprise to protect information
employee with poor security on their home computeron company-issued secure USB flash drives across
bringing a file he/she has been working on at hometheir organizations.
into the workplace on their USB Flash Drive andServer-side software is also available to manage the
plugging it into a company machine. This could exposeCruzer Enterprise drives - SanDisk CMC (Central
the corporate network to all kinds of viruses orManagement and Control) adds a higher level of
malicious code that may have been transferred oncontrol to Cruzer Enterprise. It centrally manages the
the USB Flash Drive from an unprotected computer.drive’s complete lifecycle, from initial
The third and most serious risk is the theft ofuser-deployment, through password administration
confidential data or “data leakage” as it hasand data backup, and finally to drive termination if
come to be known. There have been many cases inlost or stolen.
the past where workers are given access to