USB Protection

 

The Business Hub console now offers the USB Protection service with Premium and Ultimate Business Security subscriptions, allowing you to control access to USB flash drives, external HDDs, optical discs, memory cards, digital cameras, smartphones, tablets, and other devices that have storage capabilities. With this service, removable devices won't be able to access your end users’ data without permission.

Support for denying access to smartphones and tablets is currently unavailable for macOS devices.

Requirements

The Business Agent will install the service. Therefore, the requirements for USB Protection are essentially the same as the base Business Agent requirements.

Activating USB Protection

To be able to activate the USB Protection, you need be subscribed to either Premium or Ultimate Business Security, as the Essential Business Security subscription doesn't offer this service.

To activate an additional subscription or upgrade to Premium or Ultimate Business Security, see Activating and Upgrading Subscriptions.

Once purchased, the subscription will show USB Protection available.

You will then be able to select USB Protection as part of the Business Agent deployment. Download the setup as usual and execute it - the Agent will install alone, and then install USB Protection afterwards.

Existing devices can also add USB Protection post-installation from the Devices page, via the toggle in the Remote Control column (see below).

Installing/Uninstalling USB Protection

Inside the Business Hub, the USB Protection service can be seen on the Devices page through selecting the USB Protection column.

Once added, the column will display the USB Protection icon and toggle. The icon will be green and the toggle blue when the service is installed on a device, while both the icon and the toggle will be grayed out when the service is not installed.

To install the service on a device, click the toggle so that it turns blue, then confirm the action by clicking Install in the pop-up dialog.

On the client side, there will be no indications in the UI that the USB Protection is installed, since the service uses the Business Agent to operate. However, when a device is blocked on an end device, the user will see a notification in the system tray. In this case, if the device should be allowed, they are indicated to contact the administrator, who can then configure the exclusions for USB Protection.

To uninstall USB Protection, click the toggle so that it turns gray, then confirm the action by clicking Uninstall in the pop-up dialog.

You can also bulk change the USB Protection service to off/on via the Manage Services option.

For more information on how to manage services for devices, see Managing Services.

Configuring Settings

To access and configure USB Protection settings:

1. Open the Policies page
2. Click the desired policy to open its Detail drawer
3. Click the Settings tab, then USB Protection
4. Expand the USB Protection section
5. Choose between allowing and blocking access to removable storage devices

   • By default, USB Protection is configured to allow access

Configuring Exclusions

You can configure exclusions for USB Protection in the USB Protection section of the Exclusions tab, so that specified connected removable devices can be allowed for unlimited time. Whitelisted devices will not be affected by whatever global setting has been configured in the policy.

Note that you cannot manually specify an exclusion for a device that has not yet been connected in the network.

 

To add a removable device to USB Protection exclusions:

1. Go to the Exclusions tab of the policy's Detail drawer
2. Expand the USB Protection exclusions section
3. Click + Add new exclusion

4. Tick the checkbox(es) next to the device(s) you want excluded

5. Click Add new exclusion
6. Save your changes once you are finished adding exclusions

You can also delete a previously added exclusion from the list by clicking the trash bin icon in the Actions column.

USB Protection Report

The USB Protection report provides an overview of all removable storage device connections to devices in your network within a specified period of time.

To learn more, see USB Protection Report.

FAQ