USB Flash Drive Security

[ReverentCreature]

Hi all,

Our school management are becoming increasingly concerned about security when it comes to staff files and data protection. A few staff have lost their keys and questions have been raised about confidential data that was on them.

What do other schools do as a standard easy way to password or otherwise protect data? Do you have a policy or guidance on it?

[enjay]

We bought a load of Integral drives which have a little floppy partition on them as well as the main drive, so when you plug it in to the PC you get a B: and a D:. The B: contains a little utility which allows you to password protect the D:, although I can't say we've ever used it, in fact, it caused so much confusion that I ended up hiding the B: drive altogether!

Like you, I am worried about what people carry on the pen drives which they leave lying around, though.

[Kained]

Not really lots you can do as it comes down to staff themseleves make them aware of the risks and maybe get them to sign something saying any confidential data taken from the school network to remote access is there responsibility and staff must ensure this data is kept both confidential and safe.

[bossman]

We just advise all members of staff and the students about the use of USB pen drives and tell them that they are ultimately responsible for their own data security and not to keep confidential data relating to the school on them.

As they have remote access to their own work files they have no need to carry any sensitive school related data on these drives.

[kerrymoralee9280]

That's as much as you can do. You can't password protect every staffs files on their personal usb pens. We provide plenty of different 'secure' ways to access documents outside our premises, such as terminal server. If staff choose not to use this then it is completely their responsibility.

[pallen]

Ultimately there is not a lot you can do. You can advise staff to follow your guidelines, but in the end unless you do it for them, you cannot guarentee that it will happen.

All information for staff only is stored on the network where pupils do not have access. However this does not stop staff leaving a workstation logged on when they walk away. There has to be some level of trust where any sensitive information will be looked after accordingly. In my view leaving a disk lying around with confidential info on it is no different to leaving hard copies lying around. It is much better to educate the staff to be carefull when moving work around.

[Geoff]

I think your better off trying to fix this by having a policy in place that covers data protection issues than using a technological band-aid.

[acrobson]

At present we are currently rolling out fingerprint flash drives, you can either scan your finger print each time you wish to access the secured partition or type in your password, giving the fingerprint scan function does require a certain technique to get used to.

So once combined with a college policy, it does seem to work, and at an affordable price too.

Here’s the link for the Misco finger print memory stick, However you can get bigger and better ones from eBuyer, which are up to 4GB and are about the same price and 2GB which are only £14 as appose to £16 from Misco for a 1GB.


http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/...1941&CatId=331

I hope this is of some help.