A survey report called “The State of USB Data Protection 2019: Employee Spotlight” was recently released by Apricorn, a California-based supplier of encrypted external storage products. The survey polled approximately 300 employees across a wide range of U.S. industries.
Two key findings are:
- While 87% of organizations use USB drives, most don’t have tools and policies in place to manage their use.
- Despite being aware of the risks associated with USB drives, employees are often not following best practices, due to lack of a mandate from employers.
Some of the survey statistics are:
- 58% of organizations haven’t implemented port control/whitelisting software for managing USB device usage.
- 26% don’t employ software-based encryption.
- Only 46% require data stored on USB drives to be encrypted.
- 58% of employees use non-encrypted USB drives on a regular basis (including those received for free at conferences).
- 64% of employees use USB drives without obtaining advance permission to do so.
- Only 47% of organizations have a policy in place regarding lost or stolen USB drives.
- 48% of employees did not notify management about a lost USB drive.
- 53% said they don’t have technology in place that would prevent or detect downloading onto USB drives of confidential data.
- 44% said there is inadequate governance and policies in place for the management of USB drives in the workplace.
“Considering the increase in volume, sophistication and severity of security threats facing organizations today, it is critical that employers arm their employees with secure USB drives to prevent highly damaging data breaches,” said Mike McCandless, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Apricorn. “Even though (nearly) 90% of employees use USB devices today, the fact that nearly 60% of employers fail to use port control or whitelisting software to manage USB device usage is alarming. Organizations should not only implement strict data security policies, but they also must reinforce that their employees use encrypted USB drives that require a unique PIN.”
If you would like to learn more about USB drive security, contact BSC Solutions Group Ltd.
