Portable+data+storage+devices

Kenny Borkmann, Michelle K., John B.

A portable storage device (PSD) is used as a separate place to save and store computer documents. A portable storage device can store pictures, files and other documents made or found on the computer and can easily be shared between computers. A PSD can be used to backup computer programs and can hold a large amount of information. A PSD can be a flash drive, CD, DVD, or external hard drive. It is important that if sensitive information is saved on a PSD that it should be encrypted. You can find different websites that can do this. Files can be separated in between private and public. PSD can be use in schools to save students work throughout the course of their time in school. It’s a great way for teachers to save lesson plans and information used in the classroom. A student can learn how to use a PSD and save different data they may create in school or at home. Instruction in Elementary school: Students in elementary school can benefit from using any form of PSD. It helps protect their work done on the computer that can later be used to upload their documents later. Students can learn effective ways to save work done in class. Students should also be aware of possible theft. If a flash drive is lost or stolen important document can be used, deleted, and lost. It is important to save work in more than one place. Be sure the students save all information in two places on the computer in the appropriate file and on a PSD. The good thing is that a flash drive is small and portable so students can easily take them from class to class if the need to. Another element that is critical to stress to young students is what is on their PSDs. Students should learn at a very young age to **never put any personal identfying information on their PSDs.** If stolen personal information could lead someone that preys on children right to their front door. Also teachers of young students should stress to be very careful what sites they download from as they could import malware and infect any computer that they insert the PSD into.
 * Description:**
 * What is the impact of this issue on K-12 schools, educators, and students?**

How to integrate PSD Safety into instruction in grades 5-8:

Integrating PSD's into gradese 5-8 instruction would be beneficial to the student and teacher. As previously stated, this helps students be able to stop what they're working on in class, and take the material home to either finish, or make further progress. Showing students how to properly use these devices and how to protect these devices from things such as malware, or theft by another student, is key. To do this, a teacher should first know themselves how to manage and utilize a portable storage device, as well as show their students how to do so. The teacher should demonstrate how to keep tabs on data, the ideas behind encryption, leveraging the security the device has, associate certain devices with particular users, consider third party software, and how to track data that has left the current network. To tie these attributes of safety and technology into instruction, a teacher could have students run through a short series of PowerPoint slides giving them audio, and visual demonstrations of how to go about meeting the aforementioned protective actions. After the student has finished running through the PowerPoint (or whilst running through the demonstrations), the student could go about protecting their own portable storage device by the same means the demonstration did. In doing this, the student is able to walk themselves through an easily, clearly detailed demonstration of basic protection of portable storage devices. This will later enable the student to further their knowledge and applications in technology, as it lays the groundwork for such. 7-12 As students get older and more mature they gain a better understanding of the threats to security of portable storage devices (PSD). For students in grades 7-12 these threats and the importance of not only protecting their own information but of the seriousness of theft of other individuals or companies information should be incorporated into any lesson plan involving the use of a psd. An employee could use a PSD to infect a system with malware which could go undetected for some time since it was introduced internally. The psd also allows an employee to steal sensitive company documents undetected. This could be proprietary information to use in competition with the company or other sensitive documents. Students of this age should be taught how to protect their information and the ethics involved in being privy to any sensitive information. The links below discuss ways to protect information. The first link is basically an advertisement for a product that can be downloaded and used to protect systems from the threats of PSDs. The second link discusses various strategies for protection including complete disabling of ports, encryption, and managed control of ports.


 * Additional Links:**

http://www.gfi.com/endpointsecurity

http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/adventuresinsecurity/portable-storage-device-security-8995
 * References:**
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