The Evil Corporate Secret Stealing iPods Are Back!!!
from the not-this-again dept
It seems that every few months, some security company wants us to believe that iPods are some evil security threat to companies, as employees are sneaking them in and sneaking out precious trade secret info. It started about a year ago with a Gartner report, which was quickly followed by rumors that the UK military was banning iPods (later denied). A few months later, a security company came out with a similar warning. So, it really shouldn’t be any surprise to hear yet another security company screaming about how companies have no idea the threat the iPod represents. Apparently, this security company doesn’t realize just how many people now carry USB hard drives on their key chains, or (more importantly) the fact that just about anyone who works at a computer these days has access to this (ooooh! scarrrrry!) thing called “the internet” which lets them send data outside the company walls to almost anywhere they want!
Comments on “The Evil Corporate Secret Stealing iPods Are Back!!!”
What a bunch of numpties
It would make sense, in a completely locked down environment, to include mp3 players in the list of banned items. But if you’re not blocking the internet and searching everyone for floppies, CDR’s, thumbdrives and every other conceivable storage mediium, there’s no point getting excited about iPods.
Re: What a bunch of numpties
There are very few corporate environments that implement strict security standards. In the typical scenario, intellectual property is protected using file and folder-level access control and auditing.
It is best for an organization to lock down the data itself, instead of limiting the use of portable data storage devices. For example, instead of keeping the pool wide open and protecting the water from being taken by probiting buckets, just lock the pool instead.