'USB Drives Pose Insider Threat'

Raul (152.163.40.168) -

We've all heard the story about the laptop that ended up at someone's house with 26 million vetrans records on it. All supposedly and mistake (and quite likely so).

However, the threat for when someone wants to steal data is amazing.

A few bucks will buy you a 1 gig USB memory card. Slip it in the USB jack and walk off with whatever data you want.

How can it be monitored? How can it be stopped?

Comment #1 Ed (196.40.43.7) -

Do you want to count the ways someone can get data out.

1) USB memory card

2) Digital Camera

3) MP3 Player/IPOD (who is going to actually check that every file named SONG.MP3 is an MP3 and not confidential company data)?

4) email

5) Floppy Disks

6) CDR, CDRW, DVD RW, etc.

7) Wifi

8) Any remote control software for your pc

9) telnet, ftp, xmodem

How does your employer stop you from stealing data from work?

Comment #2 Milly from Wisconsin -

Its pretty sad that anyone who is in a government position can be just as crazy as a civilian and steal our private information.

Comment #3 imaginarydivabc from vancouver, bc -

I think every company need to take another extra step to protect hardware and not just security on the internet for their customer's sake.

Comment #4 Sweetness from Earth, the Universe -

I don't understand that you would classify a government employee as anyone different from Jane/Joe public. These are people we are talking about and it doesn't matter from what walk of life they have come from or what area they are working in they are still just people with all the foibles that people come with.

They can be in charge of the most secretive plan on the face of the earth but somehow, somewhere information gets leaked out to the press and the public.

Do you think that a title or that a "position" in government changes people from their natural liabilities. These are people who can crack under pressure, crack under bribes (not how many police that's happened to)and just plain crack up and want to do damage.

So don't count on being safe from anyone who wants to do damage. And you have seen many news stories where the neighbours thought of him/her as a good person, caring and kind and don't understand how they could possibly have done such a "bad thing".

Comment #5 MrD from Nowhere -

You do know people cna literally form your PC email the data to themselv's.

Comment #6 itsmrsjonesy from * -

wow I guess I never really thought about all the ways someone could steal information from a computer, or just how easily they could do it for that matter. It is certainly something to think about.

Comment #7 Milly from Wisconsin -

That's what I mean sweetness from earth. Just because the perosn is in a government position, doesn't me your identity can be trusted.

Comment #8 Sweetness from Earth, the Universe -

Yep you definitely have that one right. Any system run by people is a system that can be compromised.

That's why the hackers get so much attention. They use computers for the worst possible use. So if you really want to protect yourself before you give out any information ask yourself "What can this be used to find". That's the only way you can be sure you are not giving too much personal information that can be used against you.

Comment #9 snowbird (1) from The North -

My brother in law was a hacker. He doesnt talk too much about it, so I don't know if he was just playing around or actually getting into very importants computer systems.

Comment #10 Zohaib (203.128.10.18) -

Kindly review the products on www.hlsworldwide.com Thee products are the answer to your concerns posted on the forum. Contact me for further detail or question as these devices can lock whole system and encrypt all secret data which is of no use if somebody even steel it from yours computer which is even not possible due to port lockng functionality of this device.

Comment #11 Jess from New York -

Unless you're physically searching every employee, it's very difficult to prevent that level of theft. You have to hire and keep employees that you and your company can trust. The data itself is the bigger issue as it can get into other people's hands and then you're in trouble. This can be overcome with some good encryption which is often supported by the thumb drives themselves.

Comment #12 Tara from Somewhere cold -

It's still kind of scary to think that (after looking at all those ways information can be stolen) not more security is implemented to avoid these problems. I know at my husband's work they are very very strict about ANYTHING that leaves the workplace, almost to the point of being searched.

Comment #13 George from Montana -

But can a search turn up anything? Put a .jpg on a usb drive and if someone looks at it they see a photo... but after the photo in the .jpg file is secret corporate documents.

Maybe a physical search will turn up photo copies... but if anyone is allowed any kind of media, it becomes nearly impossible to check whether that media contains any forbidden information.

Comment #14 Jenna from A highly secure location -

Well steganography could be prevented if you don't let any physical drives leave the building. Thumb drives are pretty small though and you'd have to put a detector into place and have your employees feel violated each time they leave the building.

Comment #15 Benoit Goyens (213.30.158.14) -

Our company came up with quite an innovative technology to precisely identify any equipements (USB, drives, phones, printers, internal memory, etc..) through a unique ID (not a MAC address, but an in depth component ID). Thanks to this technology, our solutions (Device Authenticator & Device Linker) allow us to protect PC's on a network from any connection that shouldn't be authorised, but also to protect data by making sur that a device (USB key) can only connect to specific computers and no others (their hardware configuration having been recorded in the device).

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