Secure USB flash drives protect the data stored on them from access by unauthorized users. USB flash drive products have been on the market since 2000, and their use is increasing exponentially. As businesses have increased demand for these drives, manufacturers are producing faster devices with greater data storage capacities.

An increasing number of portable devices are used in business and decreased numbers for consumers, such as laptops, notebooks, personal digital assistants (PDA), smartphones, USB flash drives and other mobile devices.

Companies in particular are at risk when sensitive data are stored on unsecured USB flash drives by employees who use the devices to transport data outside the office. The consequences of losing drives loaded with such information can be significant, including the loss of customer data, financial information, business plans and other confidential information, with the associated risk of reputation damage.

USB flash drives pose two major challenges to information system security: data leakage owing to their small size and ubiquity and system compromise through infections from computer viruses, malware and spyware.

The large storage capacity of USB flash drives relative to their small size and low cost means that using them for data storage without adequate operational and logical controls may pose a serious threat to information availability, confidentiality and integrity. The following factors should be taken into consideration for securing important assets:

The average cost of a data breach from any source (not necessarily a flash drive) ranges from less than $100,000 to about $2.5 million.

A SanDisk survey characterized the data corporate end users most frequently copy:

Examples of security breaches resulting from USB drives include: