Secure USB Drive

Another UK council has had to sign an undertaking with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to better safeguard its data after an unencrypted USB memory stick was lost in the post.

The device, lost by Shropshire Council in England, contained personal and health details of vulnerable members of the public, and of members of the council’s own staff who were working in the sensitive adult social care department. It was being sent by post from the council to a contractor in Cardiff.

The ICO said the loss breached the Data Protection Act, and the undertaking the council has signed requires education of staff on data security, and encryption of portable and mobile devices used to store and transmit personal data.

These incidents show the need for always-on, mandatory protection of data written to removable media: protection which is delivered from use of our Cruzer Enterprise range of secure USB flash drives.