Ever wonder how nice and handy it is to have a flash media device, such as a thumb drive. How convenient it is to be able
to take work home when there’s not enough time in the day, or use it to store
temporary data to take with you on a business trip. In all honesty, it’s so simple children in
school use them daily to save work they’ve done up to a certain point. But then, have you ever thought of the
dangers associated with using a thumb drive, e.g. their size, there storage
capacity, their lack of security. The
same dangers are the reasons why employees such as government or pharmaceuticals
are banned from inserting them into their pc(s) at work.
Truth
of the matter is, these devices are simple and convenient to use, but the
dangers associated with them should make anyone think twice about using them for
work. Thumb drives have come a long way
since their invention, and what’s unnerving about these practical devices is
their lack of security as it relates to physical and application protection.
Due to
their size, these devices are able to slip into a pants pocket, a purse, or be
worn around a neck. The problem
associated with this, is the risk of the device being easily lost or stolen. Once in the hands of a stranger, the next
danger presents itself, the lack of encryption.
Most of the low end dollar devices do not come with any type of
encryption or safety measures. So what
happens when one of these devices containing personal information is lost or
stolen? Well, the new founder of the
device has easy access to all the information on the drive. In a recent article, “A
Maine-based company announced Thursday it fired an otherwise exemplary employee
who downloaded medical data onto a jump drive and then lost the device while
traveling between Salt Lake City, Denver and Washington, D.C.” Threatpost (January,
2013). Luckily the personal information of the 6,000 recipients
listed in the data caused no real threat.
However, the point is, these devices can cause damage when not properly
secured.
If that
doesn’t give a person enough to think about, here’s some more food for
thought. Since storage capabilities are
in the gigabytes, taking work home is as common today as driving a car. But what happens when a work file gets
infected with a virus from a home pc without it being realized. Then the file is transferred back to a work
pc. Far-fetched, maybe not as uncommon
as one would think, and the result is an entire network becoming corrupted.
Lastly,
because of their convenience and storage capacity, they create an internal
threat. Their simplicity alone provides
employees the capability to download, store, and walk away with data that could
have dire consequences to the company if it ever fell into the wrong
hands. The fact of the matter is, disgruntle
employees may not even do it for the money, but for the satisfaction alone of
harming the company.
As one
can see, thumb drives may be tiny, convenient and great to have. But, if not protected, stored, and used
properly they can cause irreparable damage.
So before you take it out of your pocket and plug it in, think about
what you are doing. Think about the
risks and then think about the consequences.
Is it worth it?
References:
Saita,
A., (January 2013), ‘Terrific
Employee’ Fired After Losing USB Drive Containing Medical Records. Retrieved from http://threatpost.com/terrific-employee-fired-after-losing-usb-drive-containing-medical-records-011713/77422
