"While organizations of all sizes are scrambling to protect their sensitive information through security solutions designed for networks, port security is one avenue of data loss at the endpoint that many IT managers are just now becoming aware of through recently reported data breaches," says Erik Johannisson, Chief Technology Office, Pointsec Mobile Technologies "The risk of data loss through unprotected ports and plug and play storage devices is a serious concern among all organizations in possession of confidential data. Once this sensitive information is copied through a port to a storage device - whether it is by a malicious insider or a well-meaning insider who is unaware of the security policy - it becomes vulnerable to loss, theft and unauthorized use."

USBs, along with other plug and play removable media devices, can connect directly into workstations and function without IT authorization or knowledge. The current breed of these thumb-size devices can hold up to 8 gigabytes of data, giving an attacker the ability to easily import unauthorized data, unlicensed software, malicious code, games, screensavers and other inappropriate material. More importantly, these devices increase the risk of theft of intellectual property and proprietary information.