Thursday, 1 February 2007

SanDisk to Make USB Security Push

SanDisk has plans to launch a product that helps businesses manage and control the use of USB drives. These drives pose a point of weakness as fraudsters could utilise malicious code to enter a corporate network, to get hold of confidential information.

Rich Mogull, a Gartner analyst, said, "SanDisk is just taking advantage of a short-term opportunity. Since device control is clearly on its way to being a subset of other product suites, it's hard to see any real future here for SanDisk outside partnership."

In the first week of January 2007, SanDisk had launched a 32GB solid-state drive using flash memory chips. This new release aims to substitute the conventional hard disk drives. Notebooks equipped with the new drive, which is expected to add around USD 600 to the cost of a machine, could be available in the first half of 2007, SanDisk said in a statement.

The traditional hard drives, require to be fully in action before it can find files, flash memory-based drives contain no moving parts. The 32GB drive, is said to boot up Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system in 35 seconds, compared to 55 seconds for a notebook with a hard disk drive, according to SanDisk. The company also boasts lower power consumption. The chip requires 0.4 watts during active operation compared to 1.0 watts in most hard drives, the company said.