Secure USB devices are becoming popular for storing enterprise data because of new security features incorporated by device manufacturers. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly difficult to monitor and ensure physical security of these devices. Losing a secure USB device is to be expected and corrective measures initiated to recover lost or stolen data. The obvious solution for countering lost or stolen secure USB is to provide a centralized enterprise management which would manage password policy and recovery procedures remotely. Keeping track of secure USB devices and monitoring them should become feasible with such a central system.
Secure USB Drive with CMC
SanDisk is a pioneer in remote management of secure USB devices. Their CMC, or Central Management and Control, is available with many of their secure USB devices. The major advantage of CMC is its integration with Active Directory to create device-user association and password policies . This translates into a centralized deployment of secure USB devices providing remote
updates and configuration of device parameters. It is also possible to administer password remotely. Those with some working experience with secure USB devices will understand the importance of managing password remotely since employees are notorious in forgetting passwords quite frequently.
Another aspect of a secure USB device in an enterprise environment is that data stored in these devices can be accessed by non authorized persons due to negligence or by persons with criminal intent. The CMC has provision to remotely terminate the data access control of any lost secure flash drive . In addition it prevents secure USB devices from being used with unauthorized PC’s . The design of CMC ensures that the embedded timing mechanism forces drives to connect to the CMC server, thus eliminating unauthorized use.
Secure USB Data Availability
In case of loss of secure USB device there is a possibility that important data is either compromised or entirely lost. With remote centralized operations one can restore or recreate lost and stolen secure USB device. This also ensures high availability.Remote administration of secure USB devices ensures high availability, monitoring and control.
Enterprise data is full protected and in case of theft or loss, the password of secure USB device can be changed or locked to make it inaccessible. In such cases it is also possible to retrieve and recreate the data stored on the secure USB with the help of remote centralized operations. In practice such a capability to remotely manage secure USB devices is invaluable in an enterprise environment.