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Introduction
The portability of USB Flash Drives makes them an easy target to data theft and data loss
As storage technology breakthroughs become a day to day fact, the world shifts focus to smaller and smaller devices to store data. From laptops and notebooks to pocket PCs and external hard drives, the trend is easy to understand. This is why USB flash drives, also known as UFDs, are so popular these days: they are small enough to be placed in one’s tiniest pockets and carry large amounts of data.
But the features one is mostly looking for in such devices – their portability and convenience that entail enhanced mobility, also make them an easy target to theft and even easier to misplace. This is why UFDs are bringing an enhanced need for comprehensive security policies, from traditional authentication and encryption measures, to more refined features, such as biometric authentication, a method relying on unique physical and behavioral traits of human beings.
Making Use of Portability Benefits
Now at version 2.0, the USB standard is widespread and any PC or notebook allows for it to be plugged and played, with no additional installation needed. This turns UFDs into extremely easy to use devices. Files are transferred at high speed onto and from the flash drives over and over again.
Moreover, they are quite powerful in terms of storage capabilities, and represent the high-end of portability. Compared to other storage devices, such as CDs or DVDs, UFDs are by far less exposed to hard to control factors such as shocks, vibrations or high variations in temperature.
UFD (USB Flash Drive) Security Caveats
While carrying your files everywhere grants mobility options that could boost a company’s business activities, the embedded security threats posed by UFDs cast a shadow on their extensive corporate usage. While small and easy to carry, USB flash drives are also easy to loose, which would then lead to sensitive data leaks. Moreover, misuses of such devices can lead to taking private information home and sharing it by mistake from a PC, leading to the same result.
These facts are also proven by Gartner’s 2006 global study that showed 25 percent of information theft as being linked to network intrusion. The same study found that 60 percent of data breaches can be easily linked to lost or stolen mobile devices.
A 2007 Proofpoint survey reached similar troubling facts, as more than one quarter (26.3%) of the surveyed companies reported that their business was impacted by sensitive or embarrassing information exposures occurring in the last year.
Another similar study, conducted by Check Point Software 2006 among IT professionals from Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands showed that 76 percent of respondents never use any data security to protect information stored on USB devices. The great majority of respondents also said that they regularly use USB flash drives. If any of these devices were to be lost, the damages would be disturbingly significant.
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