Forgotten USB sticks at the dry cleaners leaves data hung out to dry

by Steve Ragan - Jan 26 2009, 15:00

Texas Credant Technologies says that in the last year, 9,000 USB sticks have been forgotten in people’s pockets as they take their clothes to be washed at the local dry cleaners.

Credant Technologies’ survey, carried out in the UK, was designed to gauge the frequency and ease with which mobile devices such as USB and memory sticks are lost or forgotten in strange places such as dry cleaners.

Dry cleaners in the suburbs, on the commuter belt, or based in city centers find the most USB or memory sticks. One owner of a dry cleaners based in the heart of London said he is getting an average of one USB stick every two weeks, another owner said he had found at least 80 in the past year.

As an interesting side note to Credant’s recent study, the company conducted similar research last year. In September, Credant talked to taxi drivers in London and New York, learning that over 12,500 handheld devices such as notebooks, iPods and memory sticks are left in the back of taxi cabs every six months.

Tidbits and humor aside, the risk of storing data on a portable device, and then misplacing it, is enormous. Keeping with the UK locale, in 2008 there were several examples of USB sticks containing sensitive information ending up as dust in the wind.

One example, from August 2008, is a USB drive containing information on 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales. Specifically, names, birth dates, and release dates, were stored on the USB drive in clear text, meaning no encryption was used, according to the Home Office. On Friday, The Information Commissioner's Office concluded that the Home Office breached data-protection laws over the loss of those prisoner records.

“Although we conducted this survey in the UK, the idea was to show people everywhere how easy it is to lose data, even in their local dry cleaners and that none of us are infallible. We’re convinced if we were to do the same survey in the US we’d get very similar results,” said Michael Callahan, Credant senior vice president, and chief marketing officer.

While lost USB drives holding sensitive data are a serious issue, some people are simply forgetful.
 
When the dry cleaning stores were asked to recall what the strangest objects were that they’d found in customers' pockets, most said they had recovered keys, money and credit cards. However, one claimed to have found a gold Rolex watch, while another in Hatton Garden had found an envelope filled with diamonds -- all of which were reunited with their respective owners along with their clean and pressed laundry.

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