External Drive Policy

Please note that as this policy is periodically reviewed and updated, if you print it from the website, its accuracy cannot be guaranteed for more than a 24 hour period following printing.

External Drive Security

Staff are reminded of their personal responsibility to only use external drive devices, which includes USB memory sticks for work purposes if they are free from viruses. NB You risk having all the files on external drive devices deleted if any viruses are detected.

The use of external drives increases vulnerability in several areas - portable devices may suffer from physical loss, theft or damage, affecting confidentiality and availability.

No personal data relating to employees or customers or business critical information shall be stored on external drives unless it is encrypted and you have the permission of the data owner and the departments functional data manager.
If you loose or have an external drive stolen which contains unencrypted personal data, you may be liable for prosecution under the Data Protection Act.
If left overnight in your normal office, all external hard drives shall be locked away in a suitable filing cabinet or drawer.
Any losses of external drives shall be reported immediately to the IS Service Desk and the Data Protection Officer, form fm 4/9/7 (http://www.hantsfire.gov.uk/fm-4-9-7.doc) shall be completed.
Before you connect an external drive to HFRS systems, it shall be scanned for viruses (you risk having files on the key deleted if any viruses are detected)
The use of external drives shall be approved by your line manager
If the external drive is used for transitional storage (for example copying data between systems), the data shall be securely deleted from the device immediately upon completion.
All data stored on external drives shall be backed up in accordance with the Back up and recovery policy (http://www.hantsfire.gov.uk/theservice/policies/infoservices-policies/backup.htm