The use of mobile storage devices—such as USB thumb drives—poses a significant risk to data exposure, as we saw in 2018’s Heathrow Airport breach. As a result, automotive companies are concerned about the use of mobile storage devices by their suppliers and service providers.
To meet TISAX standards, automotive companies must define the measures they take to make sure sensitive information on mobile storage devices doesn’t fall into the wrong hands—especially if a device is lost or stolen.
While mobile storage devices should have native security measures activated, that protection only goes so far. PKWARE can augment mobile storage security by protecting files with persistent strong encryption. Persistent encryption remains with files even when transferred between devices or other media, keeping the files inaccessible to unauthorized users.
The protection travels with the file. So it holds wherever the file ends up, whether that is a thumb drive, a cloud folder, or a partner system. Only authorized users can decrypt it, even when the data sits outside the company network entirely.
Why Persistence Matters
PK Protect automatically applies persistent strong encryption to files based on classification labels or policy-driven parameters. As part of the automated security workflow, policies are applied to the files before they ever hit the mobile storage device.
How PKWARE Is Different from Other Encryption Solutions Many solutions only encrypt data at rest, meaning, as long as the files are in a secure location, they’re protected. But copy the file onto a mobile storage device (or copy it to Dropbox, or an Azure instance, or anywhere other than that secure location), and the file loses its protection.
In this scenario, your employees might be walking around with dozens of unprotected files in their pockets.
Access follows the person as well as the file. PK Protect associates encryption keys with user identities through Active Directory. So an employee who leaves the company loses access the moment their record is removed. That includes files already copied onto removable media. No re-encryption is required, and there is no second user database to keep in step. That matters when nobody knows where every copy of a file ended up.
Passing the TISAX Assessment and Staying Compliant
PK Protect combines data discovery scanning and encryption into a single workflow, so whenever an employee creates a file that has sensitive data as defined by company policy in it, persistent strong encryption is applied automatically—and immediately. Your security workflows can be set up in different ways, but automated data security workflow is unique to PKWARE.
PKWARE ensures systems with sensitive data will meet TISAX standards for data protection—even when files get copied onto mobile storage devices.
Learn more about how you can become TISAX compliant with help from PKWARE.