INTRODUCTION

Did you know that we spend approximately 10 minutes a day looking for
lost items? That is equivalent to approximately 60 hours of our life a year. That is
60 hours that could be spent being more productive. An office worker survey
conducted by BlockMaster, a leading provider of secure removable data devices,
has revealed some worrying trends and highlighted the overwhelming need for
secure USB drives in the workplace. 40% of over 100 office workers surveyed by
BlockMaster have lost a USB stick at some point, and nearly two-thirds (64%)
have left a drive unprotected in a PC, exposed for anyone to potentially access or
steal. Meanwhile, ignorance seems to bliss, as nearly a third (30%) of office
workers have no idea whether the USB sticks they are leaving around are secure.
The proliferation of USB sticks means this represents a growing problem, globally
more than 20 million are lost a year. More than a third of workers (35%) store
more than 20 files on their USB sticks, meaning that the loss of a single USB stick
can expose a high volume of sensitive corporate information. Therefore, we, The
Young Scientists Club have come up with an idea that could minimise this
enduring problem.
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system
made up of a network of 24 satellites placed into orbit by the U.S. Department of
Defence. GPS was originally intended for military applications, but in the 1980s,
the government made the system available for civilian use. GPS works in any
weather conditions, anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day. There are no
subscription fees or setup charges to use GPS. GPS uses a lot of complex
technology, but the concept is simple. The GPS receiver gets a signal from each
GPS satellite. The satellites transmit the exact time the signals are sent. By
subtracting the time the signal was transmitted from the time it was received,
the GPS can tell how far it is from each satellite. The GPS receiver also knows the
exact position in the sky of the satellites, at the moment they sent their signals.
So given the travel time of the GPS signals from three satellites and their exact
position in the sky, the GPS receiver can determine your position in three
dimensions - east, north and altitude. Bradful Parkinson, Roger L. Easton and Iron
A. Getting are credited with inventing it.
USB flash drive and hard disk are data storage devices that includes flash
memory with an integrated Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface. They are
typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than an optical

disc. USB flash drive and hard disk are often used for storage; data back-up and
transfer of computer files. They are smaller, faster, have thousands of times
more capacity, and are more durable and reliable because they have no moving
parts. Additionally, they are immune to electromagnetic interference (unlike
floppy disks), and are unharmed by surface scratches (unlike CDs). USB flash
drive and hard disk use the USB mass storage standard, supported natively by
modern operating systems.
From these two, we at the The Young Scientists Club have brought forth
with a solution to blend the two ideas namely GPS and storage and produce a
new product, USBeSafe. This product has the same functions as other storage
drives which is for storage and data back-up and transfer, with an exception that
it brings more convenience to the consumer by having the ability to be tracked
by GPS. It is also equipped with additional features which include the options to
retrieve or wipe the data in the drive via cloud storage in case that it is lost or
stolen.