[Web4lib] Re: Info Week article re: portable drives (was) Allowing portable Firefox

[Richard Wiggins]

Well of course the concern about sensitive data on portable devices
applies to any enterprise, large or small, and to any individual. 
We're doing a university-wide awareness campaign at Michigan State and
one of the points we make is the risk entailed when you use a thumb
drive as a pail to carry sensitive data around.  An example I give is
that I put some data regarding my late brother's estate on a thumb
drive that stays on my key ring.  When I was checking into a hotel one
day I realized that it would not be wise to hand that data to the
parking valet.

As thumb drives become cheap and reach 2 gig, 4G, and more, the
temptation to store sensitive information on them increases. It's
increasingly common to carry your presentation on one and plug it into
a computer supplied by your host.  How do you know software on that
computer isn't waiting to see a new disk drive and copy the entire
contents of the drive?

The sensitive data concern wouldn't seem to apply to a public
workstation at a library.  But there is the possibility of the drive
having a virus that infects the computer  -- or the computer having a
virus that sniffs or infects the drive.  But those dangers aren't
unique to the medium.

/rich


> --- Isabel <danforth at alumni.tufts.edu
> wrote:
> I would expect that this is talking about corporations who do not
> want
> > employees to take data from the company and place it on insecure devices
>
> > and home computers.
> >
> > Isabel
>