USB Flash Drives Represent Top Threat To Corporate Security

Removable media devices, such as USB flash drives, represent the No. 1 threat to corporate security, surpassing Web viruses and malware/spyware for the first time. But according to a recent study, only 20 percent of companies have effective measures in place to protect against the threat.

The study, which was conducted by IT asset-management solutions provider Centennial Software (Swindon, U.K.) and surveyed more than 370 IT managers at this year's InfoSecurity Europe conference in London, reveals that more than 43 percent of companies have no controls in place to manage removable media devices and 27.4 percent leave it to the manager's discretion. Just 8.6 percent of firms ban removable media devices outright.