Employees at IBM are now prohibited from using removable storage devices of any variety while in the workplace, according to a recent report.

Reportedly, IBM’s Global Chief Information Security Officer Shamla Naidoo announced that “the possible financial and reputational damage from misplaced, lost or misused removable portable storage devices must be minimized.”

Although different departments within IBM already had portable drive bans in place, the announced ban will now extend to every one of IBM’s over 350,000 employees.

Offering as an explanation for why the ban is suddenly being implemented, IBM explained: “We regularly review and enhance our security standards and practices to protect both IBM and our clients in an increasingly complex threat environment.”

In a survey of 400 different organizations back in 2011, businesses reported losing 12,000 customer and employee records thanks to missing USB sticks. With each record costing companies an average of $214, the survey revealed that the cost to those companies affected could be well over $2 million.

"While these devices may be small," the study said, "the data breaches that can result from lost or stolen USBs are huge. More than 70 percent of respondents in this study say that they are absolutely certain (47 percent) or believe that it was most likely (23 percent) that a data breach was caused by sensitive or confidential information contained on a missing USB drive."

IBM is joining the ranks of a number of other companies that have already implemented such a ban.