His comments come after a national paper reported on 17 February that a senior health and safety executive had lost an unencrypted USB device containing a secret report on a nuclear power station.

‘This is the latest in a string of high profile data losses and their seriousness cannot be overstated,’ said, Norbury. ‘We have seen several cases of NHS records going missing in recent years with grave implications on patient privacy. There are also many examples of military personnel losing flash drives with sensitive data on. This latest revelation will only increase fears over our national security. It is imperative that organisations in possession of sensitive data take every step available to prevent it falling into the wrong hands.

‘In many organisations, it is possible to insert a USB flash drive or memory card into a computer and download sensitive and confidential data from the server without any form of security clearance whatsoever. Furthermore, as flash drives and memory cards are available with massive capacities, people lose track of what’s been stored. It’s so easy to keep adding data without maintaining any record of what’s been downloaded over extended periods of time.

‘This means that organisations can lose control of the location and security of their data very quickly – and have no idea of how many copies of their documents are in circulation. For this reason, it is vital that owners and holders of sensitive data have a watertight security policy, enforced by a strong technological infrastructure. In short, USB and other memory cards really should be encrypted and their use authorised and logged by employers – or banned altogether.’

A highly respected figure in the field of data security and flash card market, Norbury, a Board Director of the SD Association, the trade association that sets the standards for the SD card – the dominant form factor in the memory card industry – established Cardwave Services in 2004. The business provides a range of project management and consultancy services across all aspects of data duplication, encryption and license provision. Clients include blue-chip multinationals in the telecommunications, navigation, automotive and consumer electronics markets.

In announcing the move, Paul Norbury, CEO and Managing Director of the Wiltshire-based Cardwave, described the alliance as a major step forward for both companies.

For Cardwave, the deal will establish RunCore as their preferred manufacturer of performance-driven SSDs, and other formats of solid-state media targeted towards high-end or high-performance markets.

“Cardwave and Runcore both share the same goal, which is to operate successful and profitable businesses, and this we will do by building a successful European partnership that will benefit both companies” he explained.

“From Cardwave’s point of view, we intend to do this by re-selling RunCore’s products, and using our product and market knowledge, together with our advanced range of services, to give credibility and differentiation with the highest level of support to customers.”

Paul Norbury added that RunCore would benefit enormously from this partnership, helping to break down language and cultural barriers for the Chinese-based company to compete in Europe. Cardwave’s extensive knowledge and long-held reputation will help RunCore to become established in the tough European market.

He said that many industry professionals recognise Cardwave as a pioneer of flash media series, whose knowledge, expertise and capabilities were beyond peer and which would add value to RunCore.

“We are very excited with the growth potential for SSD’s and delighted to have developed this exciting partnership with RunCore, which will maintain Cardwave’s position as an innovative, market-leading services organisation.”

RunCore Innovation Technology Co Ltd was established in 2007 and is a leading global company dedicated to collaborating with customers and partners to develop and manufacture first-rate SSDs. With proprietary core technologies, RunCore, which is headquartered at Changsha in China, provides customised solutions and efficient support for various applications.

As a supplier, RunCore offers a wide array of solid state storage products for corporate (military, enterprise and industrial) and consumer customer, who need incredibly fast and stable performance with 100% data integrity.

RunCore has set up support centres in the US, Europe and China. The company has representative offices and sales networks across China and in 22 countries worldwide – Asia, Europe, North and South America, the Middle East and Australasia.

 
At the last minute Cardwave were asked to programme 1,100 2GB USB flash drives for the awards. These were giveaways for attendees to the ceremony which had been originally programmed in the Far East. However, a last minute change of speaker dictated a complete overhaul of the content, which meant Cardwave was called in to salvage the issue.The enquiry was made on Thursday afternoon, just 96 hours before the awards ceremony on the following Monday. To add to the complications, a last minute change of speaker dictated a complete overhaul of the content.

 
Cardwave had been recommended by an existing client to see if they could help. They provided log-in details to allow the client to upload their content to Cardwave’s secure FTP server, and the drives were received on Friday morning at 9am.
Content was mastered and screenshots provided via email for the client to approve which was received by 10.45am. Once approved, the existing content was securely erased from the drives and 340MB of new data was successfully programmed. The drives were packed and ready for despatch by 3pm.

 
With time so critical, the drives were shipped on a dedicated delivery service on the Monday, arriving at the venue, the Novotel London West, four hours before the event.

The content on the USB was a 7GB installation file for a password-protected software application used by one of the largest energy companies in Germany. The drives had already been programmed at source in the Far East, but they had experienced a 40% failure rate with the application failing to install, prompting the decision to re-program the entire batch. Hama needed to collate the drives locally at their administration and logistics headquarters in Monheim, Germany, before shipping them to Cardwave in two separate deliveries.

On receiving the drives, we first had to remove and responsibly dispose of the existing retail packaging. On testing the first batch of drives, we found the data sizes and creation dates were not consistent, suggesting the high failure rate was most likely due to the original programming methods rather than any quality issues with the drives themselves.

We created a master drive and programmed an initial 50 drives from that master, adopting a 100% bit-by-bit replication process to ensure each drive was identical. These were then sent direct to the client for their own in-house testing which achieved a 100% pass rate. On receiving sign-off from the client, we began production of the first batch of 1,500 drives which were for a time-critical project and required urgently.

They were programmed, verified and ready to ship direct to the client within 48 hours, arriving two days earlier than the initial deadline. Over the next four days we followed the same process for the remaining 4,100 drives and these were delivered direct to the client, again two days ahead of schedule.

The content on the USB was a 7GB installation file for a password-protected software application used by one of the largest energy companies in Germany. The drives had already been programmed at source in the Far East, but they had experienced a 40% failure rate with the application failing to install, prompting the decision to re-program the entire batch. Hama needed to collate the drives locally at their administration and logistics headquarters in Monheim, Germany, before shipping them to Cardwave in two separate deliveries.

On receiving the drives, we first had to remove and responsibly dispose of the existing retail packaging. On testing the first batch of drives, we found the data sizes and creation dates were not consistent, suggesting the high failure rate was most likely due to the original programming methods rather than any quality issues with the drives themselves.

We created a master drive and programmed an initial 50 drives from that master, adopting a 100% bit-by-bit replication process to ensure each drive was identical. These were then sent direct to the client for their own in-house testing which achieved a 100% pass rate. On receiving sign-off from the client, we began production of the first batch of 1,500 drives which were for a time-critical project and required urgently.

They were programmed, verified and ready to ship direct to the client within 48 hours, arriving two days earlier than the initial deadline. Over the next four days we followed the same process for the remaining 4,100 drives and these were delivered direct to the client, again two days ahead of schedule.

 
At the last minute Cardwave were asked to programme 1,100 2GB USB flash drives for the awards. These were giveaways for attendees to the ceremony which had been originally programmed in the Far East. However, a last minute change of speaker dictated a complete overhaul of the content, which meant Cardwave was called in to salvage the issue.The enquiry was made on Thursday afternoon, just 96 hours before the awards ceremony on the following Monday. To add to the complications, a last minute change of speaker dictated a complete overhaul of the content.

 
Cardwave had been recommended by an existing client to see if they could help. They provided log-in details to allow the client to upload their content to Cardwave’s secure FTP server, and the drives were received on Friday morning at 9am.
Content was mastered and screenshots provided via email for the client to approve which was received by 10.45am. Once approved, the existing content was securely erased from the drives and 340MB of new data was successfully programmed. The drives were packed and ready for despatch by 3pm.

 
With time so critical, the drives were shipped on a dedicated delivery service on the Monday, arriving at the venue, the Novotel London West, four hours before the event.

With more than 20 years’ experience behind him, Robert directs the company’s operations in production, operational, engineering and quality management, using ISO 9000, Six Sigma, 8D, FMEA and Lean/Kaizen methodologies. Robert manages a highly skilled team offering production, engineering, commercial and technical customer support.

A vital member of the management team, Robert has implemented a number of important changes to the company’s operation, including the introduction of an electronic content protection system to maintain restricted software, and an improved production tracking system which has secured, intranet-enabled systems and full audit trails.

During his career, Robert has gained extensive experience of project management, operations and engineering management, including budgetary responsibility which has resulted in Chartered Engineer status and corporate membership of the Institute of Directors, as well as the Institute of Engineering & Technology where he currently serves as an educational liaison officer.

Prior to joining Cardwave, Robert was UK Service Manager with Datacard Group Ltd for four years providing strategic and day-to-day management and operation of regionally-based service teams across the UK. He looked after several key customer installations, having responsibility for managing several large regional projects as well as the customer service centre and spare parts warehousing operation.

Outside of work, Robert enjoys climbing and hill walking, along with chess and electronics.