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

[Robert Sullivan]

> 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.

The issue could be rephrased as, is the library prepared to deal with
whatever files the patron brings in, on whatever media?

If the library has adequate antivirus protection and uses some means
of preventing execution of any software on a removable drive (we use
Trust-No-Exe), then it's possible to provide access to any data files
without the support and security issues posed by non-library software.

That's going to inconvenience some people who have pictures on a CD
which uses a slideshow program to display them, or a textbook CD which
uses a shell program to display PDFs, but we work around that.

Bob Sullivan
Schenectady Digital History Archive
<http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/>
Schenectady County (NY) Public Library