Modern multinational corporations have huge inflows and outflows of information daily, through many different inlets and outlets. Due to the sheer volume of employees and connections, it can be exceedingly difficult to maintain data security. Proper precautions must be taken to protect valuable records. In this article, explore a scenario in which Kingston’s IronKey™ D300S encrypted flash drive helps ensure data security for sensitive financial information.
Keeping financial services data secure around the world
For those that operate in the global finance sector, being able to secure and transfer data has never been more important. Having the ability to operate in international markets and trading blocs, all with differing approaches to regulatory protection of data is quite the challenge.
Logistical challenges aside – we are in a world where established players in the finance space are prominent targets for attacks, whether engineered or systematic. Other security hazards can arise from simply leaving storage devices that contain sensitive data on a train, taxi, or airplane.
Given these widening attack vectors, and since the consequences of a breach are both financial and reputational, we are now at a stage where closing these gaps is no longer aspirational, but a necessity.
Challenge
A Fortune 500 financial services organization needed the ability to scale a solution globally that conformed to the most stringent data protection regulations. They wanted a solution that was straightforward to deploy, while offering the ability to be centrally managed.
Beyond the initial requirements, they also needed a solution that could combine high levels of security with a user experience that would ensure that insecure workarounds are prevented, safeguarding endpoints, and protecting their valuable data.
So, when such a prominent player in the finance space was looking to ensure data compliance, and needed a partner who understood their needs and offered solutions that solved these challenges, they went to Kingston.
Solution
Kingston was able to work with this financial institution to offer a thorough assessment of their needs. The chosen solution offered military-grade security, delivered on a global scale – ensuring consistency in data protection.
The Kingston IronKey D300S/SM encrypted USB drives were selected as the right blend of security and usability with robust management features. The drive uses digitally signed firmware, making it immune to threats such as BadUSB, and it enforces complex password protection with minimum characteristics to prevent unauthorized access through brute-force password attacks.
The encryption and decryption process is done on the drive itself, meaning that no trace is left on the host system. Many software-encryption solutions, while more economical, can expose passwords and drive access credentials in a host system’s memory, page/swap file, or hibernation files, making them less secure against determined hackers.
Plus, the drive locks down and reformats after 10 invalid attempts to protect against brute-force password attacks. These security features are all underpinned by the drive’s military-grade FIPS 140-2 Level 3 certification, ensuring data is kept truly secure with additional tamper and attack protections built in.
D300S/SM access is also protected via an optional virtual keyboard for password entry – perfect for preventing keylogger and screen logger threats – while remaining easy to use for employees. For those looking for non-complicated deployment, each of the drives comes with a unique serial barcode, ideal for organizations that need to easily track assets – knowing which employee has which drive.
The Managed version of the drive was preferred, as it offers additional centralized and scalable management of drive access and usage across thousands of drives. Set up as either cloud-based or on-premise, “Management” offers drive-specific policies, such as password strength and retry limits, and lets administrators remotely disable lost or stolen drives, and recover lost passwords.
As a result, not only does this major financial institution have a solution perfect for their growing needs, but has storage devices that are both easy to deploy and easy to use. Working with Kingston IronKey, they are safe in the knowledge that they conform to the most stringent of regulations around the globe, and their data is – simply – secured.