Companies at risk from employees’ risky use of USB keys In a street survey, 41 percent of people admitted storing company data on USB keys. Of those, 83 percent do not use any encryption, so anyone with access to the physical key is able to extract, copy, edit and distribute its data. While laptop users were slightly more likely to use encryption, 76 percent of USB keys being used by laptop owners to store company data were unencrypted. Katja Pryss, marketing manager for Steganos, said: “The portability, speed and capacity of USB keys have made them popular, but there is always the risk they will be misplaced, lost or stolen. Apart from any moral or legal obligations companies might have to protect personal data in their care, much of the information stored on USB keys is strategic and potentially damaging to the business if leaked. Given the ease with which data can be distributed online, companies need to take greater care of their competitive information.” She added: “Company IT policies sometimes fail to acknowledge the way people work today where it’s commonplace to use data portability to empower closer teamwork and flexible working. It’s time for businesses to write encryption policies that will ensure that if a USB key goes missing, the only loss is the cost of the key itself.” USB keys, also known as USB memory sticks and pen drives, are about the size of a keyring with typical capacities of up to 512MB. They are popular because they offer a high data density in a compact rewritable format.
•Date: 26th August 2005 • Region: UK • Type:
Article •Topic: ISM |
