Are you protected from the ?enemy within??

Ensuring employees protect their USB flash drives in case of theft, or more likely loss, is becoming standard office security practice these days. The new security risk comes with the portability advantage of the tiny memory devices. Taking data out of the office is a lot easier when one can pack data in a pocket or on a key chain.

The storage devices are being produced with ever-larger memory and in slimmer sizes. Last month Sony introduced its Micro Vault Tiny drive. Measuring roughly half an inch wide and just over one inch long,the unit has storage capacities ranging from 256MB to4GB. Other companies offer as much as 64G and counting. That?s a lot to let escape from an office.There are a number of choices on the market depending on how IT wants to protect the network. Some USB flash drives come with security already installed. Some of the more expensive types offer biometric or fingerprint access to the contents.

Other companies offer a variety of generic software protection to help secure the network and the flash drives.

For example Centennial Software and Kingston Technology recently melded their products into one security package. Centennial?s Device Wall, sits on a desktop computer and checks whether a USB flash or other Windows? ?plug and play? device has the correct privileges to be allowed to connect.

The product can also force encryption onto a flash drive, barring access to others if it is lost or stolen. Encryption can be through a global key, allowing it to be accessed only within a network. Users can also configure it for password access through a personal key.

Meanwhile Kingston?s DataTraveler Elite offers security for its flash drive through 128-bit hardware-based AES encryption.

SmartLine is another company in the market. Its DeviceLock allows IT to restrict access to a number of outlets in the network, including USB ports, CD-ROM drives, floppy drives and WiFi adapters.

The software keeps track of what is being plugged in where and when after scanning all ports.

If you still don?t think you need to do anything, look at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu study released last month.

The survey of 150 technology, media and telecommunications companies found that more than half had experienced security breaches in the past year ? with over half of these identified as coming from what the consultant called ?the enemy within?.

The survey found that 83 per cent of the companies are concerned about employee misconduct involving information systems. Many companies do not filter outgoing e-mail content as a precaution and do not tie the system down from theft through portable devices.?Portable media devices such as memory cards MP3/MP4players and writable CDs also pose a significant threat ? the largest memory sticks now hold 64gigabytes of information, sufficient to store volumes of confidential data,? Deloitte said in its report.The report noted that most corporate networks are relatively secure, while portable devices remain ?extremely vulnerable? to theft and losses.The firm suggests the use of encryption, monitoring,and even prohibition of portable devices in the workplace.

?With the increased use of personal storage devices including USB keys and PDAs, security needs to be viewed from an end-to-end data life cycle perspective,to protect data as it travels throughout the organisation and sometimes throughout the world,? the firm stated.

Figures from the UK?s Department of Trade and Industry, found that 33 percent of firms tell staff not to use such devices but rarely do anything to change the configuration of desktops and laptops to stop people moving data around with USB sticks. Only ten percent of those companies interviewed for the survey encrypt the confidential data stored on these portable devices.It?s amazing how a business can cruise along fine, then suddenly one day technology changes and the bottom falls out of its markets. This can be seen in the Eastman Kodak, which once made most of its money from film and other supplies, and now makes half of it from digital cameras.

The company?s overall digital sales in the second quarter of 2006 rose six per cent to $1.83 billion, while revenues from film, paper and other traditional, chemical-based businesses slumped 22 per cent to $1.52 billion.

Overall, the company is still struggling to adjust. It posted a loss of $282 million in the second quarter, its seventh quarterly loss in a row due to a rapid slide in film sales.

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