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#11
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[BBC] IBM workers banned from using USB sticks
nospam wrote:
In article , Frank Slootweg wrote: The company I worked for banned them many years ago - for reasons of (a) concern of theft of secure [either in the government (it was a defence contractor) or commercial sense] material, and (b) fear of infection. Exactly. Same with the little 150K employee computer company I worked for. As soon as USB ports showed up on computers, they were made inoperable. (No card-readers at that time.) That was well before the year 2000. there weren't very many usb peripherals 'well before the year 2000' so disabling the usb ports didn't make much of a difference. meanwhile, ethernet ports remained active... You know that Ethernet ports can be blocked, right ? A manager at work learned this the hard way. The IT department would only schedule a workstation move, for a date a few weeks into the future. The newly minted manager said "come on, you lads, and help me move this computer" (the gentleman was an "I don't take No for an answer" type). The routers were set up with MAC filtering, so "strange" Ethernet devices would be ignored. And sure enough, upon connecting the machine and booting... "no network" was the result. So sure, it may look like an Ethernet port, but you'd better have good knowledge of what MAC address to appropriate before that connection is going to work. That's why they buy equipment with features like that, just to make a damn nuisance of themselves with it :-) We all had a good chuckle about the "test results", and had to drive all the equipment back up the hall again afterwards. If a party doing industrial espionage had an insider who could collect MAC addresses, they could probably manage to bypass that feature. It's not like the method is "Fort Knox" or anything. But at the time, it was pretty funny that a legit employee move could be blocked that way. Paul |
#12
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[BBC] IBM workers banned from using USB sticks
In article , Paul
wrote: The company I worked for banned them many years ago - for reasons of (a) concern of theft of secure [either in the government (it was a defence contractor) or commercial sense] material, and (b) fear of infection. Exactly. Same with the little 150K employee computer company I worked for. As soon as USB ports showed up on computers, they were made inoperable. (No card-readers at that time.) That was well before the year 2000. there weren't very many usb peripherals 'well before the year 2000' so disabling the usb ports didn't make much of a difference. meanwhile, ethernet ports remained active... You know that Ethernet ports can be blocked, right ? of course, except that would make the computer rather useless. the point is that blocking usb ports, especially at a time when there weren't very many usb devices available (as in almost nothing, it was usb 1.0 days), while leaving everything else wide open, is completely pointless. A manager at work learned this the hard way. The IT department would only schedule a workstation move, for a date a few weeks into the future. The newly minted manager said "come on, you lads, and help me move this computer" (the gentleman was an "I don't take No for an answer" type). The routers were set up with MAC filtering, so "strange" Ethernet devices would be ignored. And sure enough, upon connecting the machine and booting... "no network" was the result. finding a valid mac address and spoofing it is incredibly trivial. mac address filtering is a very big clue that the sysadmins do not understand anything about network security. |
#13
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[BBC] IBM workers banned from using USB sticks
On Sun, 13 May 2018 01:11:10 +0800, "Mr. Man-wai Chang"
wrote: [BBC] IBM workers banned from using USB sticks Full story: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44069488 Staff at IBM have been banned from using removable memory devices such as USB sticks, SD cards and flash drives. The possibility of "financial and reputational" damage if staff lost or misused the devices prompted the decision, reported The Register. Instead, IBM staff who need to move data around will be encouraged to do so via an internal network. The decree banning removable storage acknowledges that complying with it could be "disruptive". Losing data .... more .... IBM engineers are going to have fun when some of their systems use USB flash drives for diagnostics...... anyhow there are rumours that there was an attacvk of common sense and exceptions https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/0..._every where/ -- Stephen |
#14
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[BBC] IBM workers banned from using USB sticks
In alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt Libor Striz wrote:
.... Welcome to UseNet mate. Being here for more then 20 years, mate. Usenet forever. -- Ma's Day esp. queen ants! Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly. /\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.home.dhs.org / /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail privately. If credit- | |o o| | ing, then please kindly use Ant nickname and URL/link. \ _ / ( ) |
#15
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[BBC] IBM workers banned from using USB sticks
nospam wrote:
In article , Frank Slootweg wrote: The company I worked for banned them many years ago - for reasons of (a) concern of theft of secure [either in the government (it was a defence contractor) or commercial sense] material, and (b) fear of infection. Exactly. Same with the little 150K employee computer company I worked for. As soon as USB ports showed up on computers, they were made inoperable. (No card-readers at that time.) That was well before the year 2000. there weren't very many usb peripherals 'well before the year 2000' so disabling the usb ports didn't make much of a difference. Huh? The discussion is about USB (memory) sticks! meanwhile, ethernet ports remained active... Duh! Yes, they were quite handy to connect to our *intra*net, thank you very much! And yes, our Internet gateways were very secure/strict, TYVM. (Think NET-15 (and -16.) |
#16
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[BBC] IBM workers banned from using USB sticks
Libor Striz wrote:
Jason Wrote in message: I recall a few years ago reading that the Pentagon had such a policy in place and had filled USB sockets with epoxy to enforce it. Quite a disadvantage if one is using a USB mouse or keyboard. That's why insert_diety invented PS/2! |
#17
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[BBC] IBM workers banned from using USB sticks
Jason Wrote in message:
I recall a few years ago reading that the Pentagon had such a policy in place and had filled USB sockets with epoxy to enforce it. Quite a disadvantage if one is using a USB mouse or keyboard. -- Libor Striz aka Poutnik ( a pilgrim/wanderer/wayfarer) "Humour is the only effective weapon against stupidity." Miloš Forman ----Android NewsGroup Reader---- http://usenet.sinaapp.com/ |
#18
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[BBC] IBM workers banned from using USB sticks
Libor Striz wrote:
mechanic Wrote in message: On Sun, 13 May 2018 07:05:06 +0200 (GMT+02:00), Libor Striz wrote: "Mr. Man-wai Chang" Wrote in message: [BBC] IBM workers banned from using USB sticks It is a logical decision. I do not see it as a topic. Welcome to UseNet mate. Being here for more then 20 years, mate. No worries, mate. Newbies are welcome! |
#19
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[BBC] IBM workers banned from using USB sticks
In article , Frank Slootweg
wrote: The company I worked for banned them many years ago - for reasons of (a) concern of theft of secure [either in the government (it was a defence contractor) or commercial sense] material, and (b) fear of infection. Exactly. Same with the little 150K employee computer company I worked for. As soon as USB ports showed up on computers, they were made inoperable. (No card-readers at that time.) That was well before the year 2000. there weren't very many usb peripherals 'well before the year 2000' so disabling the usb ports didn't make much of a difference. Huh? The discussion is about USB (memory) sticks! which didn't exist 'well before the year 2000'. usb 1.1 was finalized in late 1998 and started to become popular in 1999 as manufacturers ramped up. usb 1.0 and win95 'support' did exist before that, but it was more of a technology demo than actual products. according to wikipedia, the first usb memory stick was available in mid-december, 2000, so really 2001 when people could buy them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive#History USB flash drives were invented at M-Systems, an Israeli company, in a US patent filed in April 5, 1999 by Amir Ban, Dov Moran and Oron Ogdan, all M-Systems employees at the time. The product was announced by the company in September 2000, and was first sold by IBM in 8MB capacity starting December 15, 2000. meanwhile, ethernet ports remained active... Duh! Yes, they were quite handy to connect to our *intra*net, thank you very much! And yes, our Internet gateways were very secure/strict, TYVM. (Think NET-15 (and -16.) connect a rogue device to the intranet. done. spoof mac address (easy) and it will go unnoticed by the admins. if data theft and malware infection was truly a concern, they'd need to disable floppy drives and pcmcia slots. did they? disabling usb was nothing more than fear of the unknown. |
#20
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[BBC] IBM workers banned from using USB sticks
Frank Slootweg newsdacd4.9uk.1@ID-
201911.user.individual.net Sun, 13 May 2018 20:10:36 GMT in alt.comp.freeware, wrote: Libor Striz wrote: Jason Wrote in message: I recall a few years ago reading that the Pentagon had such a policy in place and had filled USB sockets with epoxy to enforce it. Quite a disadvantage if one is using a USB mouse or keyboard. That's why insert_diety invented PS/2! Have you seen a recent motherboard that has it? -- To prevent yourself from being a victim of cyber stalking, it's highly recommended you visit he https://tekrider.net/pages/david-brooks-stalker.php ================================================== = One thing about pain: It proves you're alive. |
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