Slashdot Mirror
Sensitive Data Stolen Via Digital Cameras
Jack writes "ITO is running an interesting story on a new security threat connecting digital cameras and hackers." From the article: "Following a spate of reports about Bluetooth and iPods devices being used to steal sensitive data from organizations, businesses are now urging to be vigilant as hackers use digital cameras to sidestep security measures. 'Camsnuffling', the latest IT managers headache being used to computer attackers to extract and store data with the help of digital camera." We've previously discussed this problem.
Because lots of corporations and governmental bodies, particularly those dealing with sensitive data, have access to removeable media such as USB drives, CD-RW drives, and floppy drives, disabled by default.
The article ridiculously claims that "many employees use digital cameras in their day to day work" - Maybe at a photojournalism shop, but in most real businesses you'd look pretty odd connecting your camera to the PC.
It's not as ridiculous as you think.
Perhaps most keyboard jockeys may not use digital cameras, but most of the businesses I know of who have employees that leave the building outfit their employees with digital camera.
Building inspectors use them for taking pictures of job sites. Insurance agents use them for making appraisals, insurance adjusters use them for taking pictures of accidents. Rig foremen use them to take pictures of their rigs. General contractors, cabling salesmen, and land surveyors use them to take pictures of job sites.. and this is just off the top of my head. I'm hard pressed to think of a company I deal with that doesn't have at least one digital camera for staff use.
That's a great point, but isn't limited to digital cameras per se. You can do the same thing with film (and that's been the subject of a few movies).
The digital angle mostly means it's much more convenient, and with Photoshop very convenient indeed. Plus the whole memory card angle, though in the kind of scenario under discussion here a film canister wouldn't be too hard to smuggle out of a sensitive location.
I was recently walking by a ground-floor open-plan office - architects, I think - and the guy closest to the window had his back to the window. Presumably to avoid distractions. Which of course meant his ginormous LCD monitors were facing the window...
This Like That - fun with words!