The best practices for USB drive security fall under two categories: preventive and reactive. The preventive measures require thorough understanding of where and when USB drives are used in your organization, and their potential to be conduits for a cyberattack. Reactive strategies cover the other end of the spectrum, and include methods for data recovery. Enforce both strategies to ensure USB drives are safely used in your organization.
Develop and enforce a detailed USB drive usage policy that outlines appropriate use, restrictions, and incident response guidelines.
Manage an inventory of the USB flash drives used in your organization. Periodically evaluate the inventory to ensure users adhere to your organization's USB drive usage policy.
Encrypt sensitive information stored on USB drives. Should there be unauthorized use or loss of these drives, the encrypted files will be worthless to intruders.
Detect and block unauthorized data transfers, and require authentication when users copy or transfer important files to USBs.
Back up files and folders on USB drives to quickly recover from data leak incidents. Thwart sensitive data leaks by wiping vulnerable files off USB drives once they have been decommissioned.
Scan endpoints and USB flash drives for viruses periodically. Mandate a screening process to steer clear of malware infections that can be introduced by removable storage drives used outside your organization.
