subject: Should Usb Flash Drives Be Banned From The Workplace? [print this page] In the last few years, there has been a large increase in sales of fancy looking USB flash drives. They have been made as little as a key chain figurine or a tie clip. Yes, USB flash drives to wear on your tie. Now that these flash drives have made their way to everyone because of the affordable pricing, lots of workplaces are banning them from the office. It's a sneaky and easy way to steal company information without someone knowing about it. Lots of companies have gone as far as disabling the USB ports on employees computers. This may seem a little extreme, but companies have to protect their information.
Banning USB Flash Drives From The Workplace
This type of theft with the creation of the USB flash drive brought concern from lots of businesses and individuals alike. What if you're an individual that carries around a USB flash drive in their purse or on a keychain and you happen to lose it? All information would be lost and open to someone who finds the flash drive. This causes concern when you have sensitive information recorded. Carrying around a flash drive is like carrying around your credit card. If you lose it, you are vulnerable to fraud.
There are so many harmful affects that these flash drives can have on a business. Because of their different shapes and designs, businesses have decided to pull the plug on the USB ports. You might look at someones keychain and think that little gadget they have is cute, but that cute little gadget could ruin your business.
People can now use flash drives for file storage and businesses can store vital information on these drives in order to keep it safe from potential security leaks. Although businesses ban the use of flash drives from employees, the company themselves do use these as ways to conduct business during travels. You can store a presentation on a flash drive instead of having to tote along a laptop with that presentation is one good example.
For the most part, flash drives have allowed people to download music, pics and files and free up room on their laptop or the desktop computer. These are also valuable in the event you would lose information on your computer due to a hacker or a virus. In this case, USB flash drives are extremely necessary. You can buy different size flash drives to hold different amounts of information. If you download a massive amount of music, you may require a USB flash drive that can accommodate all the files instead of bogging down your computer's storage.
Flash drives are a valuable and handy little piece of technology that will help secure important files and information but is definitely something that can hurt a business if someone wants to steal company information.
