Removable media – the next encryption frontier?

People are slowly getting their heads around full disk data encryption, but now the focus needs to move onto removable devices.

As data proliferates, and more importantly becomes fragmented across organisations on a variety of media the control of removable storage has rapidly become one of the most important challenges facing information security professionals and business alike. By simply observing the thousands of people that commute into the major railway stations across Europe each working day it is easy to see the huge range of smart phones, cameras, USB drives and music players being carried by commuters. Or more often not see these devices as they become less visible as form factors shrink following technical progress.

How can the removable media challenge be addressed in a sensible, strategic way so that maximum business benefit can be generated from these incredibly useful devices? Here are some ideas I’d like to kick around.