Fraudsters are offering details of 21 million German bank accounts for $15 million, according to a recent investigative report.
Reporters for German magazine WirtschaftsWoche (Economic Week) managed to obtain a CD containing 1.2 million accounts after a face-to-face meeting with criminals in a Hamburg hotel.
The bank details were apparently stolen to order for the criminal gang by call centre employees, and smuggled out on personal USB flash drives - a situation that can be controlled with the right USB security in place.
With the right USB security policies, USB encryption, and management software in place, this type of activity could have been identified early, as the software keeps a log of files copied to and from all USB drives.
This in-depth audit trail would help to quickly detect the source of these data leaks, so that appropriate action can be taken.
If you’re replacing or upgrading your company’s USB flash drives (perhaps to the Cruzer Enterprise range of secure USB drives) then you might think of putting those obsolete drives to good use.
There are organisations, such as InVineo, a non-profit tech outreach organisation, that take used USB drives and send them to developing countries for use in schools and higher education.
However, whilst recycling older computer equipment to benefit others is a great idea, you need to be very careful about old flash drives and - more specifically - the data on them.
The problem with flash drives is that just deleting files is not enough to scrub data away. Unfortunately, nor is overwriting the old data, because unlike conventional hard disk drives, the USB drive’s flash memory controller will stop even intentional data overwrites. While this is done to maximise the drive’s lifespan, by spreading data across the available storage space, it’s not good for security. It leaves data potentially accessible - even if you’ve deleted all files and tried to overwrite them.
So we would advise extreme caution if you’re thinking about recycling old flash drives. It’s also another good reason for choosing to use encrypted USB flash drives, so when they are made obsolete, the data is still safe from prying eyes.
Roy Ramati, General Manager, SanDisk Enterprise and the entire SanDisk Enterprise team wish you a safe holiday and a happy new year.
In 2008 we saw data losses, breaches and leaks becoming front-page news worldwide. Many of these leaks were from non secure USB memory sticks that were lost or stolen from their owners, putting corporate data and personal details at risk. We, at SanDisk Enterprise, offer a range of USB security solutions to assure secure USB drive usage for your organization in 2009 and beyond.
You’ll already know that the UK has led the world this year in high-profile data losses and leaks, especially from Government departments and their contractors.
These losses, from stolen laptops, unsecured USB flash drives and more, are neatly summarised here, and serve as a reminder of how easy it is for a data leak to happen.
The leak that grabbed my attention was the loss of the details of all 84,000 prisoners in the UK on a USB flash drive. The data was unencrypted - a large oversight, given the nature and sensitivity of the data.
It could have been so easily avoided using a secure USB flash drive. And would have given the organisation a ‘get out of jail free’ card in the event of the drive being mislaid.
Earlier today we and thirteen members of our technology alliance SESTA (SanDisk Enterprise Solutions Technology Alliance) issued an open letter calling upon IT professionals to implement improved security for USB storage devices without hampering worker productivity or banning the use of these powerful devices. The letter includes industry data and simple steps that, when implemented along with secure USB flash drives, will tighten USB security and help protect organizations from malware, theft, insider abuse and other data loss.
With the holiday season just around the corner, all types of novelty computer peripherals are hitting the market, including this little Lego USB flash drive, modelled on the Star Wars robot, R2D2.
In the Star Wars films, R2 is a tough and resourceful character who holds some very valuable secrets, one of which leads to the destruction of the Death Star, the Empire’s most terrifying weapon.
And while an R2 memory stick is a cool gift for a geek you may know, don’t forget that it’s an unsecured flash drive, that can hold potentially explosive data - just like in the films.
So if you do want to give one as a gift, remember the memo issued recently by NASA CIO Jonathan Pettus on good practice with removable storage. Or better still, buy them a secure USB flash drive. Then, unlike Luke Skywalker, you’ll never have to worry about losing R2.
There has been another local Government data leak in the UK, this time a City Council employee in Leeds, England lost an unsecured USB flash drive that contained in-depth personal details of 5,000 kindergarten-age children and their parents. The data was not encrypted.
The drive was handed to the police by a person that found it in a car he had just bought, which was formerly a taxi. In this case it seems the data has been returned safely, but no-one can be certain the contents of the drive haven’t been viewed.
After all, in April this year, SanDisk surveyed IT managers and end-users, and 12% of end users reported finding a USB flash drive in a public place. Whats more, 55% indicated they would try and view the data on it. So mandatory data encryption is a must-have for USB drives.
As always, organisations should back up their policies by issuing secure USB drives with mandatory hardware encryption.
As the Christmas holidays approach and staff begin to wind down, it’s wise not to let your organisation’s security stance relax.
A number of IT news sites are already running stories about what they expect the biggest security threats will be this year and, perhaps for the first time, USB security is on the list.
We’ve just announced the first secure USB flash drive to fully support Apple Mac OS X computers. Available now, SanDisk Cruzer Enterprise helps IT professionals more effectively protect information on company-issued secure USB drives in Macintosh environments.
Cruzer Enterprise supports Apple Macintosh computers running Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger” and Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard.” Like all drives in the Cruzer Enterprise range, the new Mac version meets the unique USB security, compliance and manageability needs of today’s enterprises by imposing a hardware-based USB encryption solution that puts mandatory access control on all files as protection against theft or loss of the drive.
We’ve appointed DNS Arrow, one of the UK’s leading specialist security-focused distributors, to help drive further growth in the USB security and USB encryption markets there.
Working with DNS Arrow, we will be able to give better service to existing resellers and customers, and open up new market opportunities for our secure USB flash drives.
With the UK data leak protection (DLP) market growing quickly, following a year of high-profile losses from Government departments and the public sector, the relationship with DNS Arrow will help resellers develop existing and new USB encryption and anti-malware business.
issued recently by NASA CIO Jonathan Pettus on good practice with removable storage. Or better still, buy them a secure USB flash 
