Forget Camera Phones, Now iPods Are A Security Risk
from the run-for-the-hills! dept
Well now that analysts have gotten people all worked up about the security horror of camera phones, they’ve now set their sites on another evil security villain: the iPod. That’s right, your iPods is a corporate risk. Hell, it could be used to introduce a virus or even to (gasp! oh no!) steal company files. Just wait until these analysts types learn about those USB keychain drives that just about everyone has already… oh wait, the report warns about those too. They then suggest that companies ban just about every new technology, no matter how useful it might be, just because there’s a small risk that it could be misused. At what point do analysts stop freaking out about every new (or even not-so-new) technology, and realize that (a) banning the technology will never work and (b) will often make a company less productive than its rivals who learn to embrace new technologies? Is there a risk in any kind of additional, portable storage medium? Sure thing, but there’s just as big a risk in someone ftp-ing files to an outside server. What it really means is that an IT staff no longer has to just be afraid of threats over the network, but also need to realize that threats can come from portable storage devices. Expect a ton of new client-side security products to start protecting on that side of the fence in the near future.
Comments on “Forget Camera Phones, Now iPods Are A Security Risk”
Laptops ?
I guess they do not believe in laptops, PDAs, email (GMAIL ?) or CD-Rs either.
These could be potentially used to steal “files” too. What about someone using their camera phone to take images of what’s showing on the screen.
No Subject Given
Think Gartner needs to reduce their staff a little as they appear to have too much time on their hands.
Does anybody really pay for this kind of insightful research ?
Let's ban paper too.
We’re going to have to ban paper here, because someone might write something down and walk out of the building with it. And please stick your head near this large magnetic coil before exiting the building, we need to erase everything you’ve been thinking for the last 8-10 hours.
Why doesn't that surprise me?
Just recently I have received a mail from our Network Security dept, informing me that I can’t use iTunes because its ability to optionally publish playlists could be used by crackers to break into my PC.
…at the same time Internet Explorer with its Exploit of the Month remains the company-standard browser…
Forget Camera Phones, Now iPods Are A Security Ris
Its lucky no one has realised we have memory in our heads as well otherwise they could be band too.