(Editor's note: Whistleblower Edward Snowden finagled access to sensitive data about phone and Internet data mining programs at the NSA and reportedly snuck the data out of the agency using thumb drives. In this guest essay, Dave Jevans, founder of Marble Security and current chairman of the Anti-Phishing Working Group, outlines how the little thumb drive has become a security threat.)

USB thumb drives, or flash drives, are back in the news as a security threat. Recent NSA secrets leaker, Edward Snowden, allegedly used a USB thumb drive to copy secrets about the PRISM spy program from the US National Security Agency (NSA), and disclose those to the world's media.

Hundreds of millions of thumb drives (aka flash drives) are sold every year. In addition to backing up data, these little devices are extremely useful for sharing large files between computers. I speak at cyber security conferences around the world on a regular basis, and my flash drive is the best and most reliable way for me to copy large PowerPoint presentations and photos between my computer and the computers at conferences that display the presentations to my audiences. It's more convenient and secure than using an Internet file sharing service.

But there are dangers to using USB storage devices. The first is the risk of storing your private data on a thumb drive, and then losing it in a taxi or airport, or having the device stolen. This risk can easily be mitigated by using a secure USB thumb drive that requires a password to unlock it, such as an IronKey. Malicious viruses can also be spread through thumb drives. Secure thumb drives often include anti-virus capabilities that prevent portable viruses like Confiker from spreading to your computers. You should also disable auto-run on your Windows computers to prevent malicious code on thumb drives from infecting your computers.

An even bigger risk is that most employees walk in every day with devices that can steal company information. It's their iPhones, iPads, Androids and any other smartphone. These are all storage devices that can be used to copy gigabytes of company information and walk right out the door, or share that data over the Internet.

Requiring Mobile Device Security software on any device that is allowed to connect to your computers is a great way to enforce the same level of security as that provided by secure thumb drives to protect your data. The remote wipe capability can also allow you to remotely delete data if you or an employee loses their smartphone or tablet.

About the Author

David Jevans is the founder, Chairman and Chief Technology Officer of Marble Security, provider of security software and services for mobile devices. He was was previously the founder of IronKey,which makes secure thumb drives. Jevans is also chairman of the Anti-Phishing Working Group.

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