IPod: Entertainment or Information Security Threat? (Part 1)
Most companies are failing to address the serious security risks created by the proliferation of USB flash drives, MP3 players and similar portable storage devices, industry experts have warned.
iPod is widely used by people and many of them bring it to the workplace. iPods have massive storage capacity and it can be used as a channel to steal corporate information.
The data transfer rates of removable media like USBs are now dramatically improved by the introduction of USB2, now the transfer rates are 480Mb/Second. So all that is needed by the intruder is tea break or a smoke break by you for them to plug in the device to your computer and steal data. The company’s information could thus be stolen by the intruder in a zap!
Firms should think about disabling universal plug and play functions after installing desired drivers, to restrict their use to authorized devices.
Host-based intrusion prevention software can be used to control the use of USB ports.