Secure USB Drive

According to a new report, just 27% of the Ministry of Defence’s IT systems meet the Government’s own data security standards, following a review. 

 The Government developed tough data handling sanctions in summer 2008 following a series of high profile data breaches from public sector organisations. 

 Under the new security measures, any USB flash drive, disk drive or laptop containing sensitive information has to be encrypted if it is to be taken out of Government offices - which is a significant, but achievable task, especially if secure thumb drives are used.

 To highlight just how vulnerable an unsecured flash drive is, in summer 2008, the MoD admitted that it had lost 658 laptops and 121 USB memory sticks since 2004 - with some of those lost drives containing military information classed as “Secret”.  So, securing USB drives is a vital first line of defence against data losses.