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[BBC] IBM workers banned from using USB sticks



 
 
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  #11  
Old May 13th 18, 06:45 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general,alt.comp.os.windows-10
Paul[_28_]
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Posts: 1,467
Default [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  
Old May 13th 18, 07:24 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general,alt.comp.os.windows-10
nospam
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Posts: 160
Default [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  
Old May 13th 18, 08:14 PM posted to alt.comp.freeware,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general,alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.conspiracy
Stephen[_6_]
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Posts: 2
Default [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  
Old May 13th 18, 08:29 PM posted to alt.comp.freeware,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general,alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.conspiracy
Ant
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Posts: 858
Default [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.
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  #15  
Old May 13th 18, 09:10 PM posted to alt.comp.freeware,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general,alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.conspiracy
Frank Slootweg
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Posts: 46
Default [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  
Old May 13th 18, 09:10 PM posted to alt.comp.freeware,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general,alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.conspiracy
Frank Slootweg
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Posts: 46
Default [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  
Old May 13th 18, 09:13 PM posted to alt.comp.freeware,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general,alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.conspiracy
Libor Striz
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Posts: 12
Default [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


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  #18  
Old May 13th 18, 09:15 PM posted to alt.comp.freeware,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general,alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.conspiracy
Frank Slootweg
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Posts: 46
Default [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  
Old May 13th 18, 10:21 PM posted to alt.comp.freeware,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general,alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.conspiracy
nospam
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 160
Default [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  
Old May 13th 18, 11:40 PM posted to alt.comp.freeware,alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.windows7.general,alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.conspiracy
Diesel[_2_]
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Posts: 58
Default [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?


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