When Data Goes Missing Will You Even Know?

Lam1969 writes "Jack Gold says IT shops may have a huge problem on their hands, and probably don't know even know about it. The problem is USB flash drives, which he predicts will probably reach 10 GB in capacity in three years, and the lack of policies to guide use of them by employees. From the article: 'With more and more employees using flash drives, smart phones with Secure Digital memory cards, portable hard drives, etc., the likelihood of companies actually knowing about all instances of data loss is declining rapidly. And as a result, the possibility of companies breaking laws, whether for data-loss disclosure or regulatory compliance, is growing dramatically.' Gold predicts 'at least one publicized major case of unencrypted data loss from a portable device' in the next year, which will result in many companies banning these kinds of devices."

Comments

A little epoxy will fix that right up.

[LurkerXXX]

I know of several companies which have filled in all the USB/firewire ports on most of the computers with epoxy. Only people who actually have a real need for devices using those ports have working USB/firewire (there are no floppies or CD/DVD burners in 'regular' staff machines either)

Re:A little epoxy will fix that right up.

[hazem]

Of course, many motherboards have a USB connection where you can plug a slot-based set of USB outlets. If you're already opening the case, that's all you need.

And USB, I think, is only 4 wires... if the plug is epoxied, just open the case and hotwire your own outlet.

Somone else already mentioned installing a 2nd harddrive to copy data. And one could also install a $20 USB/Firewire card in one of the PCI slots.

That leaves filling the whole computer with epoxy. Great, you've turned your PC into a commodore 64. I hope you don't have to fix it!

People just have to accept that if a person has physical access to the machine, they can compromise it.

auditing

[BrynM]

Auditing of a filesystem is the best way to go here, IMHO. Drives are getting bigger, so capacity for log storage grows too. Currently you can set most filesystems that have granular security to audit file access, writing, creation and deletion. Perhaps there is some way to adit target actions ("copied to removable drive X", "opened by Microsoft Word") that will be developed eventually. Personally, I log access to important files as a matter of habit (mostly with NTFS). I've also found that the bigwig execs love it when you tell them you can see who tried to look in their directory.

To executives, concerned about this: guess what?

[Alex Belits]

For a company to function, many employees of the company have to have access to the company's data. All of them, if they are inclined to do so, can copy it. Heck, many of them can sabotage it, and destroy the company.

Guess what the company can do about it? It can stop treating the employees as shit. Especially stop pretending that the company is some amorphous entity that makes its owners/shareholders entitled to profit, and can impose idiotic demands and shitty conditions and pitiful pay on everyone else in it. Employees do their work, this is why they have access to company's things. Nothing, ever, happened in a company without some employees making it happen, so if any of you wonder, why people can destroy your precious company, keep it in minds -- THIS IS BECAUSE THOSE PEOPLE ARE THE COMPANY.

There is nothing wrong with avoiding overbroad access where it isn't necessary for things to work, however there is no way to make any company "secure" from the very people whose only responsibility is to keep things running. Don't piss them off, and remember that you didn't become Presidents, CEOs and VPs by understanding how to operate anything that makes your company what it is. Every time you eat your lunch, think how many people you have abused today, and what will happen if any of them will press a few buttons.