With over 150 million flash drives sold worldwide last year, according to analyst Gartner, there’s an incredible amount of unsecured information being carried around in people’s pockets, bags, briefcases and cars.

And even if users think they are being safe by regularly deleting old files from their ordinary USB sticks, they are not.  In a similar way to a conventional hard disk, deleting a file does not mean it has gone forever.

In fact, all that has happened is that it has been hidden.  The delete function merely erases the reference to the file in the FAT (file allocation table) on the drive.  The file and data are still there, and by using FAT data recovery or repair tools, those “deleted” files can be easily found again.

It’s another good reason to deploy and use truly secure USB flash drives, like our Cruzer Enterprise, which keeps ALL data on them secured against unauthorised access and use, at all times.

Here’s a useful article offering business travellers useful tips on how to secure their data when they are travelling.  It covers practical and safe methods to safeguard information on laptops, smartphones and removable storage media in airports and other areas where devices are easily lost or stolen.

However, one recommendation that demands caution is the advice to use free encryption software to protect data on laptop hard drives, USB flash drives and so on.

As we’ve posted here before, this approach gives a fair level of protection for data and is better than no encryption at all.  But it’s worth noting its shortcomings:  such software-based encryption is not “always on” – so the user has to remember to actively encrypt data.  Unlike the hardware encryption on our Cruzer Enterprise range of secure drives.

With a true secure USB flash drive, you don’t have to worry whether the data you’re packing is encrypted.

Torbay Care Trust, an integrated community health and adult social care organisation in the South West of England, has chosen our Cruzer Enterprise secure USB flash drives to help protect mobile data stored on the drives from unauthorized access.

The organisation has purchased and rolled out 1000 Cruzer Enterprise flash drives. The drives will be issued to and used by all staff members, in particular those employees working remotely or transferring data between sites.
 
“We decided to deploy an encrypted USB solution across the Trust as data security breaches have become a national concern,” said Sue Fankhauser, IT buyer for Torbay Care Trust. “Our IT department felt that it was necessary to employ a best-practice solution to protect data against any potential threats and to reassure the public that patient data is secured. After evaluating numerous encrypted flash drives, we chose the Cruzer Enterprise flash drive because it met all of our security requirements.
 
“We also asked SanDisk to send us the USBs without any unnecessary packaging - which they were more than happy to do. As well as being environmentally friendly, this produced no waste at our end, helping to support our eco-friendly policies.”
 
Recent data security breaches within other Government organisations have led to calls for greater data security with transportable media devices, such as data sticks, and by deploying the SanDisk drive, Torbay Care Trust feels it is setting the standard for others to follow.