Comments on: Ban iPods at work

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 20:55:48 +0000

What about laptops? Wouldn’t it be more dangerous to let users have a laptop computer?

SO… no MP3 players… no laptops… no CDRW drives… no floppy disks… no internet connections.

Seems like Gartner wants a PC that can’t do anything.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 02:21:03 +0000

I like the old x-terminal.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 01:54:00 +0000

To be absolutely safe- let us go back to those thrilling days of yesteryear when all good worker-drones were given those horrible IBM Green screen dumb terminals. (BTW, let us not overlook all of the ones and zeroes that are readily avaible to the casual hacker on unsecured wireless LANS)

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 00:33:53 +0000

ditto …………what are we going to be forbidden to own next .. I have Wi-fi capability with read/write access to a ton of Corporate info that my employer TRUSTS me to safeguard and I do.

Come on stop the scare tactics !!

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 00:30:20 +0000

Size doesn’t matter. I can do a heck of a lot of damage by smuggling out my company’s entire client list on a 128 mb keychain storage device. A CD will hold about 5 copies of it. Doubting the capability of a CD in your security planning isn’t wise. (By the way- I can mount a USB device just as easily on any of my three Macs as I can on a Windoze machine…)

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 23:54:53 +0000

Ooooh, a CD burner and a floppy. Why you might just be able to make off with a couple of Word documents with that.

An IPOD can hold 15GB (maybe more). With that, I could grab the entire database for one of our facilities. I’m not sure how fast the transfer rate is, but I imagine I could do it in a morning.

Of course, the correct answer is to lock data down so it can’t easily be transferred. It would take a DBA (i.e., me) to grab one of our facility’s entire database, and I’m not worried about me doing that anytime soon.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 23:54:25 +0000

Apples have USB ports too, good neighbor. It sounds more like this story is trying to cut into iPod’s market share. I carry an iPod to work everyday. I use it exclusively for digital audiobooks, so I get to read two or three books every week in my odd moments, travel time, lunch breaks. If my employer banned iPods at work it would inconvenience my life, since the conditions of my employment make it virtually impossible to leave my workplace for lunch. But how is the same employer going to defend against someone bringing in a thumb drive device? It seems easier and wiser to ban USB ports at work, as well as external drives, floppies, and CD burners. Install only dumb-terminal workstations with all data backup handled through a central office. Let employees have their few simple pleasures at work. Enough of this Fourth Reich crap! Down with the Fourth Reich!

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 23:35:46 +0000

The article says:

And the vulnerability has existed since Microsoft Windows 2000, “the first widely deployed operating system able to mount a USB storage device automatically,” was released, it says.

Sounds to me like the whole thing is a ploy to set Microsoft up. I agree with the previous comments, from memory cards to CD burners, IPods aren’t going to make the any difference now in stealing information from your employer. If work allows you to have IPods hooked up to your computer, most likely they will let you have burners of all sorts installed as well.

Steve Jobs, clam it up pal and take responsibility for the chaos you are creating. Stop blaming Microsoft for incorporating USB’s into their OS.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 22:58:49 +0000

Total rubbish

Is the work machine connected with network/internet access? Should they revoke them too? Most definately, especially if they are windows machines …

I can guarantee that more sensitive data is lost to the joke that is called windows than anyone is going to steal on their iPod …. by the thousandfold.

As a service tech I will tell you that literally 3/4 of the windows machines I work on are filled with spyware, virii, and backdoors. Sadly, most of them are inside corporate environments . . .

So to that I have to say: BOLLOCKS!

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 22:02:49 +0000

Hmmm, my current work PC has a CD burner, and I’ve never had one without a floppy drive, so I don’t think my keychain memory module really adds significantly to the security threat. Strange, my employer must just trust me. What could they be thinking?