The Perils attached with the use of Portable Drives

As the technology is getting advance, the devices are getting more and more mobile. In the current era, the most used portable devices are thumb drives, sleek and stylish MP3 players, and the tablet computer that gives a great facility to carry personal and professional data around. Everything has a drawback, so these technologies also. As the use of these portable devices is increasing, the risks associated with them are also getting disclosed. Use of such portable devices would likely to increase the probability of losing your data. When a piece of information gets leaked of a company or an individual, there are fair chances that the company or the person would get hit by a hacker attack.

The portable devices have two main categories, i.e. simple media devices and smart media devices. He social media devices include devices that do not have Wi-Fi facility such USB flash drives, DVD, CD and similar portable devices. The smart media devices that have WI-Fi facility and can transfer data wirelessly or without getting plugged in. It includes personal MP3 players, Tablets, some gaming players and other identical small devices. The laptops and the smart phones do also lye in the category of portable devices, but, they are totally different.

The majority of the home and business users use the simple media devices for carrying data. The majorly used simple media device is the USB flash drive. These USB flash drives are small in size but can impose bug threat to data and can make the user suffer big losses. A website regarding technology revealed that US flash drives are responsible for more than the 25 percent of the spread malware programs. The USB flash drives are plugged into the computer contain malware software start functioning automatically and make the computer infected.

These portable data storing devices also prove to be dangerous for the data security because of their small sizes. There is always a possibility that you might drop your USB flash drive in somewhere on the way to office or some other destination. Studies have revealed that a large of small data storing devices are found the in the cabs, public buses and the trains. If any USB flash drive or some other sort of portable data storing device is lost or stolen that had the confidential information, it may cause you or your company a loss of millions of Dollars.

Here are some simple and best practices that might save from suffering big losses because of a data breach through portable data storing devices. Never plug in any alien USB flash directly into your computer; it may have some malware that makes your computer infected and give a safe passage to the cyber criminals to your database. Disable the Autorun option of your computer so that you can see what program the device contains. Equip your portable memory stick with security software that can make secure USB. Keep your personal and professional data in different databases; leakage of personal data may not harm you much as compared to the professional data.

For more information please visit:

http://www.newsoftwares.net/usb-secure/

The Threats Imposed on Data by USB Flash Drives

Who in the world is unaware of the recent data theft by Edward Snowden from the NSA (National Security Agency). Edward Snowden has stolen the extremely confidential information from the system of the National Security Agency and exposed it to the world’s media. The interesting fact is that, he did not perform any ninja action to steal the data; it has been just like a walk in the park for him. He was equipped with no hi-tech tool but the extremely common USB flash drive. He just plugged his USB flash drive in the computer and fetched the data out which he intended to steal. This incident once again brought the USB flash drive in the focus of the news and once again highlighted the threats that are imposed to your data because of this wonderful invention. The USB memory sticks haunt our data in the following ways.

The deed that is done by Edward Snowden tops the list, which means the insider threat. The internal employees of the company are more likely to steal data using the USB flash drive. The businesses allow the employees to carry data home so that they can work from home using their own device and increase the output. This principle is known as BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). There is no difficulty to the employees at all who want to steal data and then use that for their own good. As the companies have no check and balance of how many USB drives are being plugged into the system, who is using which device, what data the employees are accessing, these all are the factors which are proving worse for the organizations.

USB flash drives are getting better and better as with every day passing by and providing greater convenience. But, still, the convenience is not so convenient. Employees tend to save confidential and sensitive information in their USB flash drives that is almost of the size of a human thumb. It is quite obvious that keeping such a small device would be a tough task. The USB flash drives are prone to getting lost or stolen; these lost or stolen USB jump drives are likely to spill the sensitive data out. Using data security software that can password protect USB can save your data saved in the USB flash drives from getting leaked.

Cyber criminals use USB drives as a tool of spreading viruses. They store mal programs in the jump drives and then drop in parking lots and other public places where that USB stick can get the attention of the people. According to a study, even the 78 percent  security experts admitted that they have plugged in an alien USB drive which they found lying somewhere around. These small portable data storing devices are responsible for more than quarter of the viruses that spread and infect the computers.

The best way to avoid such data breaches is to restrict employees from using their own portable drives, equip the USB drive with proper security tools and avoid plugging in alien USB sticks. Any incident of data breach can harm you a lot financially as well as your reputation. Keep yourself educated with the security threats and keep your data safe.

                                              

For more information please visit:                                                                                                            

http://www.newsoftwares.net/usb-secure/

The Increasing Trend of Data Breaches—What is the Solution?

You have only seen 260 days of the current year of 2013, yet we have seen a huge number of data breach incidents. The Internal Revenue Service has leaked more than a hundred thousand social security number, Japanese government has exposed confidential emails to the public by mistake through Google groups, and other similar cases have been reported. These are the breaches that seem to be the outcome of human errors. According to the latest research conducted Ponemon Institute, almost 66 data breach incidents are a result of human error out of every 100 breaches.

The Identity Theft Resource Centre (ITRC) has reported nearly 212 cases of identity thefts that have resulted in the compromise of more or less 4.5 million personal records. So, if you evaluate, a case of a data breach incident is reported almost every single day of the current year. The 4.5 million records that have been exposed must have included the personal information of the people such as; cell number, address, email IDs and etc. There must have been a number of financial records that had credit card numbers, debit card number, account and ATM card numbers that have been breached.

Human error is responsible for a large of number of data breaches. A common kind of data leakage through human error is by leaking the data through email. There have been cases reported where an extremely important email has been sent to wrong email addresses. According to a study, almost 30 percent of the employees have sent a confidential email to a wrong email ID and about 13 percent of the employees have received some sensitive information through an email message from an alien email address. But, the sad thing is that not many employees are punished by their employers, so, the employees still are irresponsible regarding this email security.

Another big source of leaking data is the USB flash drive. USB flash drive is probably the best portable data storing device by far among the other portable data storing devices. USB flash drives are small in size and have the extraordinary capability to save data. However, this portable is not the safest of data storing devices. USB flash drives can be as small as a human thumb, that is why, taking care of this drive is a great deal of concern. Their tiny physique makes them prone to getting lost and stolen. A huge of amount data is leaked through these lost or stolen USB flash drives.

The USB flash drives that are lost or stolen usually are unsecured or unprotected. That is why using data security software that can secure USB drives can be a handy solution. The built in security measures of USB flash drives are not worthy enough to make information secure. As the cases of frauds and scams are increasing, it is very necessary to give your data complete protection. Information breach can be extremely costly, it may harm you financially, it may harm your reputation and it may become a cause of fine or penalty imposed by the legislative bodies. That is why, securing the data must the top most priority.

For more information please visit:

http://www.newsoftwares.net/usb-secure/

The Evolution of USB Drive and Increasing Threat to Data

When the USB flash drive first appeared on the scene, it was not that much persuasive as it is today. We can easily find USB flash drives that have capacity of 8GB, 32GB or even 64GB, but, when this small portable data storing devices debuted, it had the capacity to store only 8MB of data. This capacity was respectable at that because the other portable data storing devices like floppy disk or Compact Disk (CD) could save just 1.44MB of data. Above, these drives could save data for just once; they could not get overwritten or rewritten. As compared to those disks, USB flash drives had the tendency to store more data than them and can easily be rewritten.

Nowadays, USB flash d  rives are being used even more than the orthodox hard drives. USB flash drives provide us much feasibility, but, along with those facilities, USB drives impose a great threat to our data. USB flash drives have made us trust the technology more than it deserve, it has become our weakness. We just connect the jump drive in, pull it out and plug it again. This irresponsible plugging and pulling out corrupts your data. However, this is not the only drawback of this portable data storing device.  But, the real threat that is linked with the USB flash drive is threat of spreading malware and viruses.

More than quarter of the viruses are spread through these, it has been proven by different surveys and researches conducted on this issue. Another big problem of this small portable drive is that it is too much small to take care of. Due to its small size, these drives are very much prone to theft or getting misplaced. That is why using security software that can secure USB can protect your data from getting breached. If you lose an unprotected USB flash drive, your drive may spill out all the data saved in it which can be hazardous for you in the future.

For more information please visit:

http://www.newsoftwares.net/usb-secure/ 

Hackers and USB Drives—The Biggest Threats to Data

Since the last decade or so, organizations and individuals are facing a big threat of data leakage. The cost and incidents of data breaches are increasing at a rapid pace. The world has witnessed a rise of more than 100 percent of such incidents in a span of just one year. These incidents are getting more and more expensive as the days are passing, other than the threat of fraud, there are costly fines imposed by the concerned government. The people who are using the computer as a basic working tool are always afraid of losing precious data. There are many mediums of leaking data, but, the two top channels are using data are hackers attack or losing portable data storing devices.

Hack attacks are considered as the costliest and common source of losing data. Hackers use different techniques to trap users and make use of their data against them. One of the most and tempting ways of making new victims is by sending an attractive email to hundreds and thousands of people. The subject of such emails is usually something like “You are the lucky winner” or “You have won prize money of $500,000,000”. These emails are so catchy that the majority of the users open them and read. Usually, the name of a famous multinational brand is used as the host of such lottery, they ask for the particulars such as name, address, cell number and etc.

This material is just written in the email to give that e-message a genuine look. However, the real game of the hackers revolves around the malware link. There is often a link given the mail which is likely to be asked to click, a click on that link opens up a safe passage for the cyber criminals to enter into the computer and dig out the desired information out of the computer. The email which is sent to the bulk of hundreds and thousands of the users, hackers hope that two or users will fall in their trap.

The other most common way of losing data is by getting the USB flash drive or any other portable data storing device lost or theft. That is why experts advise to keep a secure USB. USB flash drive is the most commonly used portable drives because of its portability, affordability and amazing capacity of saving data. A USB drive can be as small as a human thumb, that is why, this external drive has several other names like thumb drive, pen drive, flash drive or jump drive. Where, its small size gives user the freedom to carry data with him/her, it is also the reason of data leakage.

Due to its small size, these drives are prone of getting lost or stolen. The majority of the user does not bother to use any kind of encryption to make their data secure in the USB drive. The interesting point is that, users are completely aware of the fact that there is always a threat of losing data, but, they still ignore them and keep the drive and the precious data without any security. This irresponsible act leads them to lost precious data when they lose their drive.

For more information please visit:

http://www.newsoftwares.net/usb-secure/