By Emmett Jorgensen

One of the obstacles we often face when selling encrypted flash drives involves the “ease of use” argument.  Companies want to add security, but are reluctant to inconvenience their users or add costly infrastructure.  It’s understandable; if a solution is difficult to utilize, users won’t use it (or won’t use it correctly).

We’ve all seen those Geico commercials where the offended Neanderthal storms off over his portrayal as a simpleton.  We chuckle; maybe think of someone we know that fits that description, then don’t give it much of a second thought.

The truth is, Read more…

Data Security

An excellent article was recently posted on Security Week regarding the use of encryption to prevent data breaches.  As we’ve pointed out in the past, encryption should be mandatory in any instances where sensitive data is being handled.  By requiring the use of encryption, IT and Infosec professionals can save their organizations time and money in the long term.

The Security Week article, entitled “The Encryption Advantage: Simple Steps to Protect your Valuable Information” does an excellent job of illustrating how using encryption can prevent costly fines.

Here is an excerpt: Read more…

Data Security

Thousands of confidential medical records were loaded on a USB flash drive, which subsequently was stolen during a car break-in.  Sound familiar?  An increase in data breach notification laws throughout the US has brought to light hundreds of incidents that would have been glossed over in the past.  In this case, the protected health information is covered under new regulations in HIPAA and the HiTECH Act of 2009.

According to the MetroWest Daily News, it’s unclear whether the incident will result in direct monetary damages but it certainly hasn’t been a public relations success:

Smith declined to say whether the loss of the records would be considered a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act - known as HIPAA - or whether the company could face penalties.

Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009, companies that experience a breach of health information covered by HIPAA for more than 500 patients are required to inform the patients and the media.

Data Security, Healthcare

According to TechEye, another NHS Trust has exposed confidential patient information by storing it on an unencrypted USB drive, which promptly disappeared.  This is a continuing issue for NHS.

The Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust patient records were lost in September 2010. Shockingly, the details were on an unencrypted memory stick and worse, the 800 affected patients were never told. Leaked details include full name, date of birth and operation details.

Kanguru strongly recommends that all healthcare organizations protect patient data by using mandatory hardware encryption on all portable devices.  The Kanguru Defender Elite secure flash drive is completing Common Criteria certification and is now available in the UK and throughout Europe.  It’s an ideal solution for healthcare data protection.

Data Security, Healthcare

Flash drives have revolutionized the business world with their convenience and portability; however, for infosec professionals, flash drives are a dual edged sword.  Their tiny size often makes them easy to lose and their storage capacity allows massive amounts of potentially sensitive data to be stored and transported on them.

If lost or stolen, a single unencrypted flash drive has the potential to cause a massive data breach.

So how can infosec professionals deal with flash drives? Read more…

Data Security

Kanguru is pleased to announce that it’s Kanguru Defender family of secure USB flash drives is now available through local distributors and resellers throughout the Asia-Pacific region.  Kanguru works with local partners to ensure that the security and manageability meet the requirements of a diverse user base.  Both government and private sector organizations in this region are turning to Kanguru to protect their mobile data from unauthorized use.

In Australia, Sydney-based distributor Bellridge Pty Limited can provide the full range of Kanguru Defender flash drives and the Kanguru Remote Management Console for central provisioning and control of remote devices.  Bellridge also has representatives in New Zealand.

Halodata International has launched the Kanguru product line in Singapore and Malaysia, as well as Indonesia through it’s PT Halodata Indonesia subsidiary.  Halodata is a security specialist that supplies a full range of hardware and software products for protecting your network and portable devices.

Data Security

Co-Authored by Matthew Losanno and Emmett Jorgensen

I’ve stressed the importance of encryption in the past and, if you are an avid InfoSec follower, you will probably agree that encryption is important.  Is it the most important aspect of data security though?  I’d say it ranks high, very high even; however, often encryption alone simply isn’t enough.  A lot more should go into the security of your confidential data than just encryption.

There are variables at work that often require security measures above and beyond encryption.  The confidentiality of the data you are working with, state, federal and industry regulations, user habits, platforms and more all factor into the security measures needed to safeguard your data.  Read more…

Data Security

A new study from the Digital Forensics Association, called The Leaking Vault 2011, covers 3,765 publicly disclosed data breach incidents over the past six years.  The estimated cost of these data breaches totaled more than $156 Billion.  “Hacking” exposed the largest number of records, while “Drive/Media” exposures were the second leading cause.

The study also shows the breakdown of incidents among business, education, government and medical sectors.  It clearly shows that data breaches can happen to a wide variety of institutions, not just those that handle “classified” information.  State data breach laws and industry regulations like HIPAA have increased the spotlight on data security outside of traditional national security organizations.  In fact, medical data breaches were the fastest growing segment from 2005-2010.

Read the full report for conclusions and recommendations.

Data Security, Financial, Government, Healthcare, Malware, Portable Storage

Did you know that besides our Blog, Kanguru also regularly posts IT and security news on Twitter?  You can find news on cyber security, malware, encryption and data breaches as well as information on new Kanguru products, events, promos and more.

Follow us on Twitter at  http://twitter.com/#!/kanguru_news

Feel free to leave feedback on our posts and suggest links and news of your own.

Data Security

There have been a lot of discussions lately about the security (or lack thereof) inherent in the use of passwords in IT security.  We’re inundated with headlines like “We’re lousy at picking passwords” or “One more reason why passwords are no darn good”.

Many people in the “passwords aren’t secure” camp point to the fact that most users tend to lean on easy to remember, and often easy to crack, passwords.  “12345”, “password”, and “iloveyou” are just a few of the common passwords used.

Another problem besieging password use:  password cracking.  Even a complex password consisting of letters, numbers and symbols can fall to a brute force, dictionary or pattern attack given enough time and computing power.

And then there is keylogging, recording every keystroke you make, rendering your password choice inconsequential.

The truth is, there is nothing wrong with using passwords for IT security.  It is HOW they are implemented that needs to be managed. Read more…

Data Security, Malware