Pocket-size USB flash drives have become a simple and popular way to move information from one computer to another. They have also become so inexpensive that “thumb drives” imprinted with logos are commonly handed out as promotional gifts. But these seemingly harmless devices can pose a serious information security threat. Identity thieves and military or industrial spies can use the drives to grab confidential data from unattended computers, or even to insert a computer virus. When Whiting School undergraduate Greg Vorsanger, now a junior, learned that researchers at the Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute had proposed the use of radio-frequency identification, or RFID, to block the malicious use of flash drives, he applied for a PURA grant to help him design and build a prototype system based on this idea. The Johns Hopkins technology transfer staff recently filed for a provisional patent covering the invention. To read the full, original article click on this link: Thwarting info security threats | Johns Hopkins University - The Gazette
Author: Kiel McLaughlin
