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 »

SanDisk has recently identified a potential vulnerability in the access control mechanism and has provided a product update to address the issue. SanDisk customers were pro-actively notified and have been given the support required for updating their Cruzer® Enterprise drives.

In the past few days several news sites have reported on this incident. Most coverage addressed the issue at hand and referred to the SanDisk web site for the resolution. Some reporters and bloggers even approached SanDisk for a response.

However, some of the coverage was simply wrong and has caused confusion in the market.
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The personal health records of over 83,000 Canadians have been lost on an unencrypted USB memory stick.

The device was lost by a member of staff from a centre in Ontario State, and contained data collected from everyone who attended H1N1 or seasonal flu vaccination clinics in the region over a period of nearly two months. The information included personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, health card numbers, doctor’s names and so on. Read More »

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.

It’s been a high-profile year for USB memory sticks: they have been the subject of many headlines thanks to a series of losses and theft incidents, and have been exploited as a new vector for spreading malware across networks (thanks to Conficker and related Autorun-exploiting worms). Read More »

In the last 6 months or so we’ve seen how USB flash drives have become recognised as a vector for spreading malware, especially malware that uses Windows’ Autorun capability.

This week, Symantec is reinforcing that message during its Cyber Crime initiative.   The company’s Security Response group product manager says that as well as being a method for propagation, USB-borne malware is particularly difficult to get rid of. 

Of course, one way of stopping the spread of malware via USB memory sticks is to use secure flash drives with on-board antivirus, which stops malware on the drive itself.

It’s also worth noting just how the sheer number of threats has grown.  In 2000, antivirus vendors issued 1,500 new signatures.  In 2009, over 2.5 million signatures are expected.  AV protection on all computing devices makes more sense than ever before.

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.

We’ve made some key updates to our solution range, and introduced an enhanced version of our CMC management software, which we are featuring at the Infosecurity show in London from 28th – 30th April.

All of our Cruzer Enterprise models now shipping are FIPS certified, offering corporate and government IT departments a valuable tool in securing and managing data.  The drives carry FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) 140-2 Level 2 certification for encryption.

The Cruzer Enterprise now comes in two versions: standard, and Cruzer Enterprise with McAfee Malware Protection.  The McAfee version helps protect users from infection with an automatic anti-malware scan prohibiting file transfers to the secure USB drive when it detects infection on a host PC.

Also, CMC version 3.0 is now available, giving more tools for distributing, protecting and recovering critical data.  The CMC agent resides on a company-issued Cruzer Enterprise drive, enabling corporate IT departments to manage the entire drive lifecycle from deployment, central back-up and restore, and central usage tracking to remote termination of lost drives.

If you’re attending Infosecurity, visit us on Stand E26.

Solution Provides Integrated Secure Data Storage And Two-Factor Authentication Technology From RSA In SanDisk Cruzer Enterprise Flash Drives

SanDisk Corporation, makers of the Cruzer Enterprise Secure USB Drive has the ability to deploy, store and use RSA SecurID® software tokens from RSA, The Security Division of EMC. This “two-for-one” solution gives users a single device for secure data storage and two-factor authentication, an alternative to carrying both a flash drive and a separate hardware authenticator. Read More »