Free Internet Security

USB Disks have become the main source of portable storage and are used to transfer the data between computers.

Security of USB disk is of paramount importance especially when they are used in businesses and when they might carry sensitive data.

USB disks can be made secure by a multitude of ways. There are encryption software that can be used to encrypt the data onto the USB drive.

There are End point protection software that are available that would enable only a few systems to read and write onto a specific USB disk. This would make the USB disk far more reliable in terms of the integrity and confidentiality of data that resides on the disk.

Encryption software such as open-source TrueCrypt, allows you to encrypt the data on USB disks in any operating system. Encryption can be done on the fly so no eavesdropping on the data can be performed.

End point protection software such as the one from Symantec, McAfee, etc. allows network administrators to configure settings that would allow only a few systems to read from a specific USB disk.

This will allow for protection of the data on the system, should the USB drive be lost. Consider for example only person A, B and C are allowed to read and write to a USB drive. If person D somehow gets hold of the disk, D wouldn’t be able to read or write onto the drive as the endpoint protection agent on his system wouldn’t allow the person to carry out the operations.

The final aspect of the USB drive security is to physically protect the USB drives. This comes down to the individual person who is in possession of the USB disks. The person needs to make sure that he/she does not loose the USB drive and is safeguarded at all times.