When it comes to selling used computers, many people don’t understand the potential risks that lie within their computer’s hard drive. Many of us store private and confidential data (social security numbers, bank account or retirement info, passwords, etc.) on our hard drives; information that you wouldn’t just carelessly hand over to another person. This, however, is often what happens when people dispose of or sell their old hard drives.
Consider the following examples of second hand drives that were sold with sensitive information still on them. Read more…
Kanguru is pleased to announce the newest member of the KanguruClone Hard Drive Duplicator family. The new tower-style duplicator can make an exact copy to 5 HDD’s simultaneously at speeds up to 6GB /min.
At a retail price of $999.95, the new unit is a great value. It’s the perfect product for any integrator or administrator that needs a high speed duplicator, but doesn’t necessarily need all the extra features in our most advanced KClone products.
In this age of technology, computer jargon and tech speak can confuse even the most tech savvy among us. A perfect example of this are the terms “image” and “clone” which have become practically synonymous. The misuse of “imaging” to refer to “cloning” and vice versa is so commonplace that it has given way to the idea that they are the same thing, which is not the case. Although both relate to the duplication of data, they each have distinct differences.
Disk Imaging
Disk imaging is a process in which the contents of the source drive are copied sector by sector and the data is then compressed into an “image” file. In this sense, we can think of imaging as a means to an end; a tool for creating the clone rather than the clone itself. Through the use of imaging software, the contents of an image file can be extracted to a new destination disk which, once restored, then becomes the clone.
Disk imaging is a useful backup tool. Some of the benefits offered by imaging include: Read more…
The Boston Herald has details on a bank executive who resigned and then left with thousands of documents belonging to his former employer, Boston Private Bank & Trust Co.
In a suit filed in U.S. District Court on Monday, Boston Private Bank & Trust accuses former lending executive Todd Rassiger of stealing proprietary information that benefits his new employer, First Republic Bank.
The 24-page lawsuit alleges that before his resignation from Boston Private Bank & Trust Co., Rassiger attached personal USB flash drives to his bank-issued computer and downloaded more than 1,500 documents, many of which included highly confidential and proprietary information.
These days, companies need to be concerned with both external cyberattacks as well as the threat posed by insiders who have access to sensitive data. Our recent post highlights the need for endpoint security, which can block personal flash drives and keep an audit log of which files are downloaded.
We also highly recommend remote management capabilities for all portable devices like smartphones and storage devices. Kanguru’s Remote Management Console can be used to instantly revoke device access from employees who are leaving the organization. Their company-issued USB drive will be remotely disabled or deleted the next time it’s plugged in.
Today on InfoSec Island, you can read a new article by Kanguru contributors regarding the security of Solid State Drives (SSD). New technologies used in SSD’s makes it difficult to sanitize the drives of sensitive information.
Due to the difference in technology between flash based SSD’s and platter based HDD’s, currently accepted methods for sanitizing HDD’s such as multiple pass disk wipe and degaussing are not effective for securely removing data from SSD’s.
The difficulty in safely wiping SSD’s stems from the fact that SSD’s, and their cousin the flash drive both utilize solid state memory and a data writing technique known as wear-leveling. Wear-leveling is a method of controlling which flash cell has data written to it.
The article points out an effective method of ensuring that sensitive information can never be recovered by the wrong person.
A simple yet effective way to make sure that data is unrecoverable from an SSD is to utilize encryption. Using full disk encryption has a twofold effect. The first obvious effect is it will secure the contents of the data on the SSD.
Adding encryption, preferably at the hardware level, adds a layer of security to all your data and is a step towards meeting many of the security requirements currently needed in the financial, healthcare and public sectors.
Second, and equally important, when it comes time to retire the drive, the encryption key can be deleted, leaving the data inaccessible.
If you are upgrading to bigger hard drives this year or transitioning to Windows 7, it might make sense to automate the process. This quick video shows just how easy it is to create multiple copies of a single master image:
Don’t let an unsecure flash drive cause business disruption, productivity loss, revenue loss, and fines.
Recent events in the news have demonstrated the ease with which portable devices can be used to steal confidential data.
Avoid your own personal Wikileaks by securing your USB flash drives. Kanguru’s secure flash drives and remote management capabilities provide excellent protection against data leaks.
The Kanguru Defender Elite coupled with Kanguru Remote Management Console (KRMC) give CIO’s and CISO’s an unprecedented level of control over their flash drives. Data breaches can be prevented with features such as:
Remote Disable/Delete - Remotely disable or delete devices compromised by rogue employees to protect sensitive information and prevent data breaches.
Domain/IP Control - Restrict drive usage to approved domains & IP ranges and prevent unauthorized use in external networks.
Offline Restrictions - Control whether devices can be used offline. Prevent unauthorized use in external networks.
Auditing and Reporting - KRMC enforces a full audit trail with detailed graphical reporting and the ability to export both customizable audit logs and graphs for external analysis to ensure proper compliance.
Kanguru is pleased to announce that its next-generation Hard Drive Duplicator is now available!
The new Kanguru Hard Duplicator is a high speed, stand-alone SATA hard drive duplicator available in 5- and 14- Target models. With ultra-fast copy speeds of up to 9GB/min, the Kanguru HDD Duplicatior is one of the fastest cloning systems in the world.
Hard Drive Duplicators are great for rolling out a new OS or master image, as well as creating backups and securely wiping old hard drives. The easy-to-use menu allows you to get up and running in minutes.
Many organizations are looking for new ways to increase the productivity of offsite users. This no longer includes just the field team, but is now including more general employees who can be enabled to work from home. The US Government is extending its Telework policy with this sort of flexible arrangement in mind.
Security and managability are key issues to consider in a Telework policy. Kanguru and Absolute ID have designed the RocIT Defender virtual platform with these priorities in mind.
1. Secure, Portable Operating System on a hardware encrypted flash drive. (FIPS 140-2 version available)
2. Not vulnerable to infection by malware and viruses on untrusted machines. Device can bypass all of this!
3. Can be remotely managed: delete lost or stolen drives, update files on device, etc.
4. Lower total cost of ownership with stronger security than notebook and tablet computers.
Find out more about the RocIT Defender “PC on a Stick” at our website.
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