USB Blockers Are No Longer Sufficient

IT pros need to balance the legitimate business need for the convenience of USB storage devices against the need for strong IT security. Simply blocking all USB ports is too drastic because it can stifle employee productivity. What you need is a set of effective means to control the use of USB drives, not USB blocking software.

Looking for Netwrix USB Blocker? This tool is no longer available, but Netwrix Auditor enables you to enforce control over USB device use and more for stronger data security.

Don’t Get Stuck With Inflexible Native USB Port Management

Microsoft Windows systems do not have a lot of features for USB management. Administrators can block or unblock ports physically. While this brute-force approach does make sure that no viruses or malware can spread to corporate machines from infected flash drives, this complete USB lockdown utterly crushes user productivity. Alternatively, you can use Group Policy to exercise strict access control over removable devices, or use BIOS to selectively disable USB ports. But these measures are insufficient — many other mediums can be used to extract sensitive information. Therefore, your data security program should extend far beyond USB port security. Even the best USB blocker solutions are useless if an insider leaks data through email.

Data Security through USB Device Control and Beyond

Netwrix Auditor facilitates data leak prevention and reduces the risk of malware infection in critical systems by improving the detection of both USB devices insertions and attempts to enable use of flash drives via Group Policy. You can keep track of these events using the daily activity summaries available in Netwrix Auditor Free Community Edition. But if you want to add even more to your USB port blocking strategy and take your data security program to the next level, consider the full edition of Netwrix Auditor.

Netwrix Auditor empowers you to:

• Harden data security by staying on top of critical user activity, such as changes to access permissions or USB control settings in Group Policy, deletions of critical data, and successful and failed attempts to access your files.
• Minimize the risk of data loss by spotting and remediating insider and outsider threats with alerts on the actions you deem most critical, including USB insertions or massive file modifications that might indicate ransomware.
• Detect potentially harmful files on file shares that might threaten the security of your sensitive data
• Identify and remediate excessive access rights to reduce the scope of a potential data breach.
• Streamline reporting processes by simply subscribing to the reports you need; you’ll get them automatically on the schedule you specify.
• Identify the root cause of any suspicious action across your file servers faster with the Google-like interactive search.