Dry cleaners find 9,000 USB drives

With stories about sensitive data being exposed in the news nearly every week, it comes as little surprise to hear that 9,000 USB drives were found by dry cleaners in 2008.

Credant Technologies revealed that one dry cleaner in the City of London found one every fortnight. Rolex watches, keys, money, credit cards and even an envelope filled with diamonds were also found.

Michael Callahan of Credant Technologies said: "We conducted this survey to show people how easy it is to lose data, even in their local laundrette and that none of us are infallible.

"If the data is sensitive or valuable then people should protect this information with encryption so no-one can access the data at any point - as it could easily end up in the wrong hands," Callahan continued.

Microsoft revealed recently that Windows 7, its next operating system, would include a feature that would let surfers encrypt USB drives.

www.credant.com
www.microsoft.com/windows7