Secure USB Drive

 The UK Liberal Democrat party has called on the Government to tighten data security in Britain’s National Health Service as a priority, following a recent series of over 150 losses of confidential patient data by NHS organisations.

 The Liberal Democrat’s health secretary Norman Lamb has called on the Government to implement several key security measures including: 

 All mobile data devices should be protected through encryption and password access, and devices registered and allocated to ‘owners’.

 Patient records should not be stored on mobile devices, with strict rules applying to copying of data.

 These echo three key points that should be considered essential for secure USB usage. 

 First, ensure staff use only company-issued secure flash drives.  Second, automate the USB encryption and enforce mandatory passwords.  Third, audit the usage of the secure drives, and know what files and data are being copied to drives, for compliance purposes.

 With the right type of drives and management software, it’s easy to follow these points.