The progress of new technologies, fueled by the falling price of Nand Flash, has given rise to a series of small devices that can store a significant amount of data. The device that epitomizes all of this is the USB flash drive. In 1999 a 16MB USB flash drive was £50, now a 4GB USB flash drive is just £10.

USB flash drives have been a great friend to businesses in recent years, making it quick and easy to transfer data from one machine to another and bring work home without the need to lug around a heavy laptop. However, since flash drives can store ever-increasing amounts of data and transfer data faster than ever, some companies consider USB flash drives to be one of their biggest security threats.

The use of USB Flash Drives in business presents three categories of risk: contracting a computer virus; data loss and data theft. All three are quite serious: a computer virus could completely wipe out a company’s IT infrastructure and delete its most important files; if the company doesn’t have effective data backup, this could bankrupt it; if a company possesses sensitive information and loses it, the company could be found to have breached the DPA and could be fined a crippling sum of money, not to mention damage to its reputation; If a salesperson walks out with his entire customer database and gives it to his new company, he will lose at least some customers.

Fortunately, there are some solutions to reduce the chances of companies falling victim to one of the sad situations mentioned above.
 
1. USB port removal – USB port removal is a pretty harsh reaction to this potential threat and is often practically difficult to implement, many companies use USB ports for their mice and keyboards and these would all have to be changed.

2. USB Drive Encryption: Encryption on the USB flash drive can take one of two forms, either hardware encryption or software encryption. Forms of hardware enrollment may include only allowing access to the USB flash drive after the user has authenticated their authority using a password, encryption certificate, or biometric authentication (most commonly fingerprint recognition, but sometimes fingerprint recognition as well). retinal). Storage media encryption can also be managed through software; Two examples are Microsoft’s Active Directory and Novell’s eDirectory, both of which can be configured to use certificates for data stored on USB flash drives.

3. Restrict access to important files on critical servers: As with all company information, access should be granted on an as-needed basis and removed from employees as soon as they no longer need that access: If you’re going to let someone know . Is it worth allowing them access while they sit?

4. Monitor company employee access to sensitive files – Just because your employees have access to data doesn’t mean they have rights to do as they please. Monitoring your behavior with sensitive data is the best way to spot any unusual patterns and can give you time to act and stop any potential data leaks.

5. Limit the size of data transferred to USB drives – Data transfer restriction software can be used to protect sensitive files by limiting the size of files that can be copied to a USB flash drive. The file size limit should simply be set to the size of the smallest sensitive files.

6. Enforce USB flash drive policies: Enforcing USB flash drive policies can go a long way in reducing the risk of accidental data loss; Policies alone probably won’t stop a disgruntled employee from doing some damage. Here are some policies you may want to consider: USB flash drives should only be used for data transfer and not storage. Data should not be on USB flash drives for more than a week. Data should not be transferred to USB flash drives without prior consent from an administrator.

7. Firewalls and Antivirus – Viruses can be caught from USB Flash Drives just like they can be caught from any other type of media. To stay safe, make sure you have the latest updates installed for any antivirus software you use.

Although removing USB ports is the only 100% safe way to make sure USB flash drives are safe, it is not a solution, the benefits of USB flash drives are huge and getting rid of them would be a step backwards for computing. By being vigilant about the behavior of business personnel and using one or more of the security solutions mentioned above, you can protect yourself from flash drive misuse and still benefit from its versatility.