Protecting a Prime Point of Entry in Your Cybersecurity Perimeter

    HUNTSVILLE, AL, November 15, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- It emerged as an industry standard nearly a quarter-century ago. The Universal Serial Bus – or USB as we have come to know it – was the agreed-upon answer to the question of how to connect all manner of peripheral components to the personal computers that were, at the time, accelerating the historic expansion of access to computing power. The need for a USB with lock emerged just as rapidly, because in addition to connecting keyboards, printers, portable media devices, external storage devices, cameras, disc drives, and network adapters, the USB is also the point of entry for communication and electric power. Battery chargers, too, depended on USB connection. The open ports were everywhere.

Ever since users started conducting Google searches for, "How do I password protect a USB drive in windows 7," elaborate measures have been developed to encrypt USB flash drives. In fact, Windows 10 comes equipped with a feature that can apply password protection to a USB flash drive, the portable data storage unit. Windows users also can disable a USB port in "only" six steps, under Device Manager. Encrypting the external USB drive, and even disabling the ports on your laptop, are options that have been energetically explored. And still the simplicity of a USB with lock remains an unused solution and an unseized opportunity in most homes, schools, and workplaces.

Prevention as the Best Protection

It mystifies most to consider the complicated answers that were engineered for ensuring data security among USB connections before the USB with lock became anywhere near as universal as the USB port. With cybersecurity spending estimated to reach more than $170 billion this year, according to a Forbes magazine estimate, where in all of economic and industry history has so much been invested with so little consensus and so little attention on the solutions that would appear to be the most basic, like the USB with lock – which costs $4 per port for the professional model and less than $2 per port for the home use model?

Utter destruction has joined malicious sabotage and clueless contamination as the consequences of going without a USB with lock. "Any USB port should be considered an attack vector," says the Hong Kong-based maker of a USB kill stick. "Any USB port should be considered an attack vector," says the Hong Kong-based maker of a USB kill stick. It is out there, it costs a lot less than $100, and it can devastate any device with an open USB port. It destroys the unguarded device by charging its own capacitors rapidly from the USB power supply, and then discharging overwhelming current into the device. The device attacked, whether laptop, copier, or peripheral, is utterly destroyed.

How and Where to Protect Your USB Ports

The Connectivity Center helps guard and control the physical points of entry that that turn computers into data networks and information systems, which includes Smart Keeper port locks that guard against a malicious USB drive. These port locks protect the ports and connectors where the most damaging and historically impactful cyber-attacks were perpetrated. Link Lock connectors and the Link Lock Hub secure your USB ports and network connections and also lock your devices so that they cannot be removed without authorized access. The Smart Keeper collection of products protect the vital data connections that empower your information systems and still permit the controlled access that moves your enterprise forward day after day.

About The Connectivity Center

The Connectivity Center is a supplier of some of the leading physical cyber security and AV connection technologies. The company is especially known for its Smart Keeper series – a portfolio of physical data security products. The Connectivity Center brand prides itself in quality, value, variety, and versatility. We want to be a one stop shop for most of your connectivity needs and we love to serve our partners in this evolving industry.

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