We blogged recently about increasing regulation, and strong penalties for companies that suffer breaches in data security. Industry experts and analysts agree that these new moves will help to drive wider uptake of secure USB flash drives. Read More »

The Marine’s Hymn, the official song of the US Marine Corp, includes the lines:  “In the snow of far-off Northern lands, and in sunny tropic scenes; you will find us always on the job, the United States Marines.”

But right now, you will not find a US Marine on FaceBook, Twitter or other social networking sites.  The US Marine Corps has banned with immediate effect the use of these sites from its networks, because of the opportunities that they present for hackers to exploit careless use and vulnerabilities.

Of course, there is also the risk of soldiers inadvertantly giving out classified or sensitive information, and the use of these applications as a platform for malware.

It’s not known if the ban is a temporary measure until network security measures change.  But it means that homesick Marines will have to rely on more traditional methods of communication with loved ones – like the phone, or email.

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.