A secure flash drive is not a luxury in this day and age but is indeed mandatory if a company wants its data to remain intact. With the increased use of flash drives by a mobile work force the threat of an attack on corporate, governmental or military data is increased as well. To combat the compromise of data SanDisk produces a secure flash drive with features crucial and mandatory for ongoing security. But what constitutes a secure flash drive anyway? Isn't a flash drive with a password enough security to stave off most attacks or attempts to gain access to data? The answer may surprise you.

A Secure Flash Drive Must Utilize Anti-Malware

Many attacks to data can be prevented with a secure flash drive and flash drives with anti-malware are even more secure against threats. Gaining access to data is not the only threat to flash drives, if access is not possible many times a virus is released to destroy or make the data unusable. If attackers are unable to gain access to encrypted data they will settle for destroying it or making it unusable. A secure flash drive with anti-malware can make viruses sterile and ineffective, unable to create havoc or destruction of data. The need to utilize a secure flash drive should hit home at this time as the US Army has banned the use of flash drives as a result of attacks on their operating system.

It should not be a surprise at this point that a secure flash drive can prevent many problems created by viruses or worms that attack systems and can literally make them inoperative. A secure flash drive with anti-malware can stop an attack before it begins. SanDisk produces secure USB drive using McAfee, a global security company that scans flash drives for viruses with anti-malware software and reduces the threat to data before it has an opportunity to infect the operating system. A secure flash drive with anti-malware is a viable solution for the US Military because of the constant threat to data and systems. If flash drives were equipped with anit-malware the recent attack on US Army data and systems probably could have been averted.

Needed Specs of a Secure Flash Drive

A secure flash drive needs mandatory access and control of all transferred files through partitioning files protecting them from attack.  Anti-malware software for added security against data threats as well. A secure flash drive is managed through a central control program, flash drives can be managed, monitored or terminated from a central server if they become subject of a threat or attack. Read, write, transfer rates and encryption specifications are important. A company called SanDisk Enterprise offers an utra-fast and a secure flash drive with transfer rates of 20MB for writing and 24MB for reading data and features anti-malware also.

A secure flash drive also needs to be independent of the operating system and encryption keys are never to be stored in the operating system. A secure USB drive that is independent greatly reduces the chances of a successful attack. A flash drive which has encryption that is hardware based is proving to be the most secure. SanDisk Enterprise is producing a secure flash drive with the best known encryption algorithm. Flash drives produced use encryption a 256-bit AES algorithm encryption with strong authenticating passwords. If the flash drive is stolen drives are locked down after a number of failed passwords attempts denying access to data.