SanDisk Secure USB Flash Drives Survey

An indepenant survey requested on behalf of SanDisk recently reported interesting findings from their 2008 study. Results illustrated the inherent risks of corporations deploying unsecured USB flash drives within the enterprise environment. The survey followed an increasing demand for secure USB flash drives. An extensive survey of both corporate IT managers and corporate end users highlighted that IT departments are woefully unaware of the extent to which unsecured USB flash drives are used inside the organization. Some highlights from the report include:

Corporate end users most frequently use USB Drives to copy:

1. Customer data (25 %)

2. Financial information (17 %)

3. Business plans (15 %)

4. Employee data (13 %)

5. Marketing plans (13 %)

6. Intellectual property (6 %)

7. Source code (6 %)  

Approximately one in ten of corporate USB drive users, reported having found a lost or misplaced usb drive in a public place. When asked the most likely action they would take if they found a flash drive in a public place, 55 percent admitted they would probably at least try and view the data.

Company workers validated their concerns by reporting that one out of every five have little to no awareness about the risks involved with transporting corporate data on flash drives (21%), exposing a serious potential for data loss. Some 41% of corporate IT managers report they are at least somewhat uncomfortable with the level of USB flash drive usage in their organization, revealing a significant level of potential risk. Moreover, when introduced with the idea of secure USB flash drives, company users provided a very positive response.

The report on secure USB flash drive usage in the enterprise was produced as a result of thousands of telephone surveys that took place througout the U.S. during March 2008. The research work was understaken by Applied Research-West on behalf of SanDisk.

SanDisk is a global leader in research, development, manufacture and sale of secure USB flash drives. Through its Enterprise Division a comprehensive solution has been developed for secure storage and management of enterprise data, in and outside the ofice environment.

Read more on SanDisk's Secure USB drives.