NHS gets 100,000 locked down USB sticks

Following a series of data breaches that have dogged the public sector, the NHS is to take delivery of 100,000 secure USB sticks.

The SafeStick USB sticks from vendor BlockMaster will be distributed to NHS hospitals under a two-year deal with seven procurement hubs across the country.

Around 70 hospitals have already purchased USB sticks under the deal.

Password protection will be mandatory for the USBs, which will also be encrypted.

The West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust has been using the system since September last year.

According to Mel Hodson, IT procurement leader at West Suffolk NHS Trust, around 150 of the SafeStick are in use at the Trust.

"We were pushed into this by the problems the NHS was having generally with data going out into the outside world and not being encrypted… the NHS was encouraging people to do it but we were the first Trust in East Anglia to go ahead and implement encrypted memory sticks," she said.

The Trust trialled a handful of other USB options, before settling on BlockMaster for its functionality as well as its price.

Durability also played its part: "We did drop tests and ran it over with various things", including chairs, Hodson said.

The sticks are used by consultants at the Trust, staff going on training, as well as to move confidential information around.

Port control at the Trust means no information can be taken outside the hospital unless it is on a SafeStick. If lost, the sticks can be disabled, Hodson said.