Thumb Drives: How They Help IT Security

May 8, 2007 1:51 PM

           

Nearly 60 percent of businesses acknowledge that they have experienced at least one major IT security breach over the last six months -- up significantly from security breach data of three years ago, when major security breaches in six-month periods were under 40 percent. The question is, how do we make IT security more robust and at the same time, easier to use?

There have been robust security solutions in the marketplace for years that could capably combat many of the new and emerging security breach scenarios that companies are experiencing -- but companies have not widely implemented the solutions. One problem has been ease of use.

Many of these security solutions use tokens for personal identification in a two-factor authentication process for user sign-in. Multiple tokens and access combinations have to be used by each user for the multitude of applications that he requires access to. Remembering all of these different security combinations quickly becomes mind-boggling and end users, beginning with senior corporate executives, don't embrace the technology widely because it is difficult to use.

On the IT side, additional hardware has to be purchased to implement two-factor authentication with token-based technology. Maintenance of individual network servers and end client machines is daunting, especially in large corporate network deployments involving thousands of client machines. There are also ongoing issues with network and server configurations -- along with the constant challenge for network administrators to download software to individual servers and client machines throughout the network whenever a security software update is required. In a large organization, token-based two-factor security technology might run into millions of dollars and many months to deploy.

Security thumb drives offer an innovative approach for robust device security with two-factor authentication that is easy to use. All of the intelligence of security policies and software can be placed on a single thumb drive that the end user simply inserts into the USB slot of his client machine.

"Tremendous intelligence is packed into a single thumb drive, and data can be stored and encrypted at AES-level encryption," says Justin Beck, CEO for Sweet Spot Solutions, Mesa, Ariz., a provider of security thumb drive solutions.

Sweet Spot's thumb drive utilizes S3, which is a software client on the thumb device. The mechanisms and components of the S3 software cannot be replicated. When the user inserts the thumb drive into the USB slot of his client machine, the software on the thumb drive binds itself to a key on the corporate network. Flash drive technologies enable this process to be done securely and simply.

The thumb drive facilitates two-factor authentication for the user, who now only has to remember his password. It also carries software that encrypts data to and from clients to the network, while it provides secure and direct VPN access to standard networks and provides certification services for hosts and users. By placing certifications, VPN authorizations and interfaces, corporate security policies, data encryption, anti-virus software and end user security all on a removable thumb drive that only functions when it locks in to its host network, Sweet Spot has eliminated the need for security software and driver downloads -- and the end user only has to keep track of a single password.

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