Security risk USB stick

Data carriers as a security vulnerability are a greater risk than you might think: according to a study commissioned by the American Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), one in five people who finds a foreign data carrier takes it and connects it to their own computer without hesitation.

In addition, 69 percent of finders do not take any security precautions before opening the data media and files, according to a study by the American University in Illinois.

In doing so, they give viruses and spyware free access to their devices and - in times of modern work practices such as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) - endanger not only their private IT security, but also that of their employers.

Minimize security risk

The basis for effective protection is a far-reaching security concept with a well thought-out catalog of measures that includes sensitization and training of employees. Above all, users should be clear about exactly what to do in which scenario and who to contact.

Which internal company data may be stored on external data carriers and to what extent? How should employees behave if they find stray USB sticks in public places?

After these questions have been implemented in a company-wide policy, only one question remains: Which software solutions can be used to secure data that is used outside the organization?

Most large and medium-sized companies store sensitive data such as confidential financial data or personal data in SAP. This makes them secure at first glance.

At second glance, however, it becomes clear that SAP data can also be transferred quickly and unnoticed to external data carriers via export functions.

With Halocore, Secude offers an intelligent software solution that controls the export of data from SAP systems. Based on company-wide data classification, rights for data exports from SAP can be individually determined, the download of particularly sensitive data can be restricted, and clear tracking of all data transactions can be performed.

Close collaboration with Microsoft also ensures that popular Office applications recognize and automatically apply the security classifications of individual files.

Data exported by users to an Excel file and saved on an external data carrier cannot be opened by third parties with Secude solutions.

In combination with SAP's on-board tools and professional virus protection software, this creates effective protection - both for accidental data loss due to a lost USB stick and for hacker attacks via malware.