IBM bans USB, SD cards, flash drives and portable devices from every office

Post by snowwrestler » Thu, May 17, 2018, 9:00 PM UTC

mattrices wrote: post #190

snowwrestler wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Physical inventory and IP are analogous in that they are both types of property that their owner intends to use to generate revenue (and hopefully profit). > it is much more complex process to valuate intangible assets such as ip. Please note that my argument above assigns a value of $0.00 to the IP itself. Even at that valuation, you can still commit theft by robbing me of the opportunity to use that IP to generate…

Your intention is irrelevant, limiting your opportunity is not theft. You're using that analogy as an emotional appeal to present the ip holder as a victim. Any competitor could limit your opportunity by releasing a functionally similar non infringing product. Would you choose the word 'robbing' in that circumstance? One would have to use your ip to create a competing product before it would even be copyright infring…

Post by Retra » Thu, May 17, 2018, 11:06 PM UTC

amelius wrote: post #150

Retra wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All USB data already has to go through your USB drivers. So you've got a software solution vector right there.

Yeah, but software can be mismanaged. Perhaps a solution would be a combination of the two. E.g. dongle converts USB protocol to (say) XYZ protocol, and software converts from XYZ protocol to readable filesystem.

Post by ekovarski » Fri, May 18, 2018, 3:21 AM UTC

dogma1138 wrote: post #118

jacquesm wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if you're willing to run a lot of screencaps or re-type the stuff you see on another computer you can still get the data out. Before modems were common in the hands of unwashed masses my friend and I would transfer files on the phone by spelling out blocks in hex. Slow but with a checksum every 16 bytes it was good enough to get some work done. If the data is high value enough it would probably be worth it.

Any host based DLP will monitor and block screen caps you also need to get them out some how. Printing will also be heavily restricted and monitored. Sure no DLP solution would beat pen and paper but that’s not a good way to exfiltrate data these days and a security guard checking people leaving a restricted area would be a good enough way to plug any leaks.

Post by Barrin92 » Fri, May 18, 2018, 7:21 PM UTC

joyeuse6701 wrote: post #157

Barrin92 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's always been an arms race and nations and companies have always strategically opened themselves up to acquire knowledge. When Germany was trying to catch up to the industrialised UK, they send business people to the UK to copy the layout of factory floors to reimplement them at home. For the longest time, Japan only allowed trade under restrictive conditions to maximise exposure to foreign technologies while mini…

If you honestly don't know why I will explain it to you. It is because it is theft. If I were to steal some or all of your possessions and give it to the disadvantaged, then I suppose you shouldn't honestly get all that upset about it, but I doubt that would happen.

Post by dogma1138 » Sat, May 19, 2018, 1:35 AM UTC

ekovarski wrote: post #195

dogma1138 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any host based DLP will monitor and block screen caps you also need to get them out some how. Printing will also be heavily restricted and monitored. Sure no DLP solution would beat pen and paper but that’s not a good way to exfiltrate data these days and a security guard checking people leaving a restricted area would be a good enough way to plug any leaks.

All of these technologies are great to prevent employees from casually stealing data but as history has proven, usually while the front is well guarded, the back end many times has quite a few holes for hackers to exploit. It's like they say, the most secure computer is the one not connected to the network.