Monday 9 September 2013

It has not been too old when Edward Snowden was ruling the headlines of almost every news channel. It was related to some confidential information of NSA (National Security Agency) that leaked by Edward Snowden. He just handed over that data to the media persons and revealed some big secrets. The United States of America was pursuing Snowden who was under the safety of Russia. The incident clearly showed the lack of security planning in the NSA that caused such data breach. Edward Snowden was equipped with an ordinary USB flash drive in which he copied the sensitive data and walked out with it. The incident once again pointed out the dangers that are linked with the use of USB flash drive. There are four big threats that are connected to the use of this small portable data storing drives.
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The Insider Threat of Data Theft
With the recently occurred data theft issue of Edward Snowden, the world has seen the enormous threat that is tiny portable drive impose to the data. As the all the computer users (individuals and companies) know that the cyber hackers are the biggest threat to the data, but, a strange fact is that more than 15 percent of the cyber attacks comes from inside. The memory technology is getting advance at a rapid pace. A human thumb sized flash drive can save a data up to terabytes that can easily be kept in the pocket. To prevent such incidents of data theft, using security software such as USB Block.
Responsible for Spreading Viruses
Hackers used to spread malware through the internet. The cyber criminals used to send emails to a large number of users enclosed the infectious program under a link that was asked to click in order to win some prize or something. Now, when the user got aware of this technique, they have started using the technology better and also use the human psyche. They just feed the USB flash drive with the malware and drop them at random public places such as parking lots, bus stands, restaurants and etc. When researches plotted the same scenario and dropped some USB memory sticks here and there at different public places. The results clearly illustrate that when a person will pick up an alien USB flash drive, he would most likely plug it in to see what kind of data this drive has in it. This shows the lack of awareness regarding the data security issue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TI2koHDJd0
The Threat of getting Misplaced or Stolen
USB flash drive that has an extraordinary capability of storing data and it is merely of the size of a human thumb. There is no doubt that it is difficult to care of a small object. Similar case is with the thumb drive. This small portable drive is very much prone to lost or stolen. Every year hundreds and thousands of USB memory sticks lost and get stolen without any effective data security measure. USB flash drive can easily spill out all the data saved in it if it is not encrypted with due care.
The invention of USB drive has provided great feasibility to the computer users, but, like everything else in the world, there is a much darker side of the drive.
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