iPod: Your Portable Corporate Hellraiser

MrAndrews writes "In an article on ZDNet UK, a Gartner says that "Companies should consider banning portable storage devices such as Apple's iPod from corporate networks as they can be used to introduce malware or steal corporate data" I recently came into contact with a similar policy at a consulting firm that was concerned that top-secret information might escape through my USB watch, and made me leave it at the front desk every day. In that case, I know it was absurd overkill ... but is this concern a legitimate concern? No more music on the way into the office?"

Comments

Re:At the very large financial corporation I work

[AKnightCowboy]

The sneaky bastards kept trying to steal my laptop, my PDA and my Nomad Jukebox to do this. I kept catching them and throwing them out of my cube (at one point, literally, as he refused to leave until he had formatted my laptop's hard drive and I had to roll him out in my chair and overturn it in the corridor).

You make it out to seem like your corporate security people were in the wrong here. What were YOU doing bringing those items in when it's obviously against your corporate security policy? Remember, you're at work to work, not to screw around with your personal stuff. Leave them at home or in your car until you leave the premises. Security policies exist for a reason, and believe it or not, nowhere in there is "To fuck with M-2's head" written as a reason for it being put into place.

Re:From the Fascist Department

[Anonymous Coward]

"A policy against iPods and other USB or other portable devices applied blindly is illusionary security at best. "

This is only one aspect of there security structure, and it makes complete sense. Ipods can be used to cause harm to the organizations information so why should they allow them into the building? Give a reason why the company should allow the iPod into the building when it can only be used to stray from organizational goals? Does the iPod make you work faster? Should they start making sacrifices to make your day a party?

"There are countless ways for a dishonest employee to steal data - the only mitigating factor is going to be how secure the network is - that should be the primary focus of any system administrator."

So what you're saying is that there are countless ways to steal data so they should not take anymore security measures? How can you make a 100% secure the network and make it easy for the employees to work on there files at the same time. There are no permissions that will allow you to block them reading a file they have access to and then not allow them to copy that to another storage device. The only way is to block USB connections and if they use other USB peripherals which many companies do this would not even be an option. Once again why should they not take the simplest and possibly most effective first step of not allowing these items into the building? Is that so you can listen to your music while you're supposed to be working? Should they always make concessions so that you can perform unnecessary activities on the job?