Repeatedly I see people exchanging USB keys. It’s a way of exchange data across from one organization to another. We have done it so in many years and it always works. Recently I was reading an article about a large company had to warn their customers about malware on some USB sticks that they had sold to them. I’m having a hard time figuring out why many companies still allow USB sticks instead of using an enterprise file sharing solution.
I see USB sticks as “giveaways” at conferences. Sometimes you can get a USB stick with a certain presentation from a session at the conference. I do not belong to any “tinfoil hat” groups on Facebook or anything, but I can’t stop thinking about what else is on that stick. We blindly trust USB stick from anyone. Even more, if it has a known company name on the side. Remember, that these sticks are being produced somewhere you do not know where is. The one that is giving you the USB stick doesn’t even know. Nowadays, you can give people batches that can be scanned, so you have their information to send a secure file link. But not many are using this solution.
I have also seen a lot of people taking their presentation on USB sticks and used in an untrusted computer in a meeting room. You are not the first using that presentation machine.
I work a lot with enterprise customers and they talk about “the Dropbox problem”, which means users on their network are using Dropbox or a similar service. When I talk to IT, they would rather close the access to Dropbox than banning the use of USB sticks. For me, that makes no sense. I am not saying that Dropbox is good enough to meet your company’s security policy, just that it might be a better solution than USB sticks.
Secure your company data with an enterprise file sharing solution
Instead of fighting the users on how to share data, then create a solution that they want to use. Don’t go build your own solution, like finding some FTP server. The solution needs to be easy to use.
Every time I talked with customers about this issue, they always say that, with any of the cloud service that offers file sharing, they do have not control their own data. That is their biggest pain. I then introduce Citrix Sharefile, which allows you to create your own storage zones. You can have your data in Amazon, Azure or even in your own datacenter.
When I tell them about this solution, all of their concerns goes away. With all the features that Citrix Sharefile comes with, it is without a doubt the best and most secure enterprise file sharing solution on the market.
Let go of the 90’s and realise that the era of USB sticks have come and gone.
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