Those Pesky Evil iPods Again
from the ban-everything dept
Remember the Gartner report that claimed iPods were a risk to the workplace because (oh no!) someone might connect it to their computer and steal corporate secrets? The same one that was rumored (but later denied) to have convinced the UK military to ban iPods? Well, it looks like security folks are trying to drum up more business on that front, talking about just how big a security threat USB and Firewire ports are. Admittedly, there is some risk, and the fact that most security pros are focused on external problems coming into at the router level, rather than problems introduced at the computer level is an issue. However, most computers nowadays have client-side anti-virus programs which would catch such malicious files coming over a USB connection. The other fear, that people will use it going outbound (downloading corporate secrets to the iPod), is a problem that is never going to go away. There's always going to be some way to get information off of a computer, whether by floppy disk, by email attachment, by FTP, by camera phone, by printing, by writing it down or even by iPod. That's the nature of information, and making a big stink about how dangerous this particular interface is seems to be building this up into a bigger problem than it really should be.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
iPod Security Risk
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: ban
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: ban
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: banning USB drives
...i hope they dont ban them.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]