But according to media reports, banking details of thousands of Australians were exposed last year when an Australian Federal Police (AFP) agent lost information on a memory stick.

The device, with details of 3500 customers from 18 banks, was lost between Sydney and London and the AHTCC, whose members are drawn from the AFP, elected not to advise customers of the data breach.

SIFT Pty Ltd.'s Information Security Services principal consultant Nick Ellsmore said the use of USB drives isn't the main issue, but the real problem is lack of password protection and encryption.

"Using these devices is fine as long as data is encrypted, it is no different to encrypting e-mail," Ellsmore said, adding that the biggest problem with USB drives is information theft by employees.

The media report said the officer had broken several rules about transporting classified information.