March 2019 AST Magazine March 2019 AST Magazine | Page 26

www.AmericanSecurityToday.com
March 2019 - Edition 33
the use of USB drives is a major securi- So, how do you deal with the risks without
completely forbidding USB-drive usage
ty concern.
and forfeiting all  of its conveniences?
Data Protection - Policies for
Hardware Encrypted USB drives.
Removable Media 
These flash drives are an essential pillar
A first step in securing USB drives –
of a comprehensive data loss-preven-
whether government issued or employ-
tion (DLP) strategy.
ee BYOD – is to have policies and practic-
es in place that deal with protecting data. Experts say companies and organiza-
Workers must know and follow these tions must insist their employees use
policies and practices to avoid loss of data, only hardware-encrypted USB drives,
compromised data, or malicious virus which combine the productivity advan-
tages of allowing USB access while con-
and malware attacks.
stantly protecting the information on the
Blocking or prohibiting employees from drive.
all USB ports may sound like an easy solu-
tion but it may also restrict productivity Encrypted USB drives are designed to
protect even the most sensitive data, us-
and lower work efficiency.
ing the strictest security regulations and
Similarly, lending drives to employees as a protocols.
means to move data outside of the network
can open said drives to bringing malware While there are ways to use software en-
cryption to protect data on standard USB
back inside the network.  
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