[access-uk] Fw: [TAFN-TITBITS] Warnings over USB memory sticks

This was posted by Leon Gilbert on the TAFN titbits list.  I've started using 
USB sticks quite a lot myself now, and I know one guy who uses them a lot at 
work.  For how much longer?  I've tried to point out the risks of these devices 
before, only to be flamed and generally mis-understood.  Those who see, 
understandably, a way out of access to public PCs must realise if they read 
this why some system admin folk aren't willing to co-operate  in letting you 
plug your USB device into their machines.

Well, enough of the intro, read on.
Ray

Personal emails:  Email me at
mailto:ray-48@xxxxxxxx

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Leon Gilbert" To: <tafn-titbits@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>;
Sent: Sunday, April 30, 2006 1:26 PM
Subject: [TAFN-TITBITS] Warnings over USB memory sticks


: Warnings over USB memory sticks
: By Mark Ward
: Technology Correspondent, BBC News website
:
: US military secrets were found in USB sticks on sale outside airbase
:
: Smart phones, iPods and USB memory sticks are posing a real risk for 
businesses, warn security
: experts.
:
: Just over half of companies take no steps to secure data held on these 
devices, found a UK
: government-backed security survey.
:
: Now security firms are developing ways to help firms control access to the 
confidential data held on
: the gadgets.
:
: They are also working on ways to stop the devices being used by viruses as a 
way to bypass other
: digital defences.
:
: Data deluge
:
: Figures from the Information Security Breaches Survey, which is backed by the 
Department of Trade
: and Industry, reveals how firms are struggling to control the growing use of 
USB flash memory
: sticks.
:
: The survey found that 33% of firms tell staff not to use such devices but 
rarely do anything to
: change the configuration of PCs and laptops to stop people moving data around 
with USB sticks.
:
:
: Memory sticks make it easy to move lots of data around
: Only 10% of those companies interviewed for the survey encrypt the 
confidential data stored on these
: portable devices.
:
: Dennis Szerszen, spokesman for security software firm Secure Wave, said in 
some sense the risk
: portable storage systems pose has been around since the emergence of the 
floppy disk.
:
: "But," he told the BBC News website, "that was just 360 kilobytes of risk not 
four gigabytes that
: can be transferred in five minutes."
:
: The popularity of MP3 players and digital cameras was also driving the 
development of a culture that
: is happy to carry around lots of data with them.
:
: Few companies were mandating use of USB sticks but their usefulness was 
leading many people to carry
: and use them, said Mr Szerszen.
:
: As a result, many USB sticks and other portable media devices now carried 
both private and business
: data. Vital business information, such as drug recipes or blueprints could 
easily be stored on a USB
: stick, he said.
:
: Recently it was discovered that USB sticks full of US military secrets were 
being sold on market
: stalls in Afghanistan.
:
: Mr Szerszen said Secure Wave has signed a deal with flash memory firm Lexar 
so that certain
: potentially dangerous uses of the hardware are logged and flagged by its 
security software.
:
: Swapping sticks
:
: Different ways to manage and monitor USB flash devices so they stay secure 
were on show at the
: Information Security trade fair held at Olympia in London from 25-27 April.
:
: Some security measures encrypt data put on removable drives such as flash 
memory sticks and others
: just keep an eye on what is being transferred back and forth.
:
: Matt Fisher, spokesman for Centennial Software, said USB sticks could also 
become an attack vector
: for viruses and other malicious programs largely because they are swapped 
between many different
: computers.
:
: "Everyone expects a virus to come through the [e-mail] gateway," he said, "No 
one expects them to
: come in on a USB stick."
:
: An informal survey by Centennial showed that 66% of people mislay USB sticks 
and that 60% of those
: devices have business information on them.
:
: Mr Fisher said firms needed a way to manage the information being stored on 
these devices to ensure
: they keep copies of important data and to guard against it going missing by 
accident or malice.
:
: SOURCE URL
:
: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4946512.stm
: 

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