Comments on: iPod killers? No! Killer iPods!

By: Church of Apple

Church of Apple — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 16:22:56 +0000

“iPod slurping”

Wow.

If you used that phrase 10 years ago people would’ve been very scared of the future.

By: The Macalope

The Macalope — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 04:49:32 +0000

Hmm! Garretson was reporting on NextSentry almost a year ago.

Most likely it’s just laziness.

By: GadgetGav

GadgetGav — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 20:40:43 +0000

Maybe the Macalope could look into what the connection is between Cara Garretson and “startup security company NextSentry”… There has to be one. Even the other writers for Network World can see it. Here’s what Paul McNamara had to say:
“Coffee pots will go first in most offices, of course, at least those that don’t already forbid the music players on goof-off grounds. And, yes, NextSentry sells products designed to among other things stop what it calls “pocket fraud” enabled by iPods, other MP3 players and small USB storage devices.
Make what you will of the headline grab, but here is NextSentry’s pitch to a Network World reporter”
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/13520

Seems to me that Garretson is just taking everything NextSentry feeds her and putting it out as a reported story that she’s investigating.

By: iPod and enterprise security. Same as it ever was. « Sharing the truth one thread at a time

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:50:19 +0000

[...] 18 Apr 2007 iPod and enterprise security. Same as it ever was. Posted by innerdaemon under Tech journalism , iPod , Apple DF and Macalope accuratelyidentify NetworkWorld editors as jackassess for promoting the iPod as security threat within enterprises. Of course, these are probably the same jackasses who, in an earlier era, predicted that PDAs were security disasters were waiting to happen: Corporate information technology users are increasingly relying on personal data assistants (PDAs) to check e-mail, surf the Web, and a variety of other tasks. When you use PDAs for online tasks they become just as vulnerable as desktop systems to viruses, mobile code exploits, and a variety of other threats. What should organizations do to make keep their PDA users safe from the threats of the Internet? [...]

By: Not worth worrying about

Not worth worrying about — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 14:33:52 +0000

I am pretty sure that anyone writing such rediculous articles are working for MS and trying to get people to buy the Zune. In fact most of the people Microsoft owns as subsidiary companies just help create more turmoil over very trivial circumstances.

If you’re gonna steal data you don’t need 20Gigs of space, Information is typically text after you take it out of databases and it compresses down nicely.

In fact any good hacker will just connect out from the Corporate network through port 80 to his SSH server (That’s right putting up a service on a different port) it to his/her house or onto a server they own.

It’s not all that tricky, people just creating false claims to reduce sales is what this is all about.

By: Rip Ragged

Rip Ragged — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 03:20:18 +0000

Hmmmph. All the data I want I can get from the internet. Who needs an iPod for that?

Heck, anybody who wants just about any piece of data can find it. It’s just a matter of patience and good searching.

Sure security is a problem. Maybe if we put all those DRM guys to work on it, they could work on securing something useful. Not that my Bananarama collection isn’t vital, but national security could take precedence under extenuating circumstances.

By: John Rodenbiker

John Rodenbiker — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 18:06:10 +0000

This is obviously a terrible piece of journalism.

But there exists a huge, real problem in companies with controlling their data and removable storage.

The problem isn’t so much an employee downloading data and selling it or taking it with them to new employers. While that’s a risk, in reality it very rarely happens and there isn’t anything a company can really do about if they want that data to be available to employees that need to work with it. A malicious employee doesn’t need to use an iPod when they have high-speed Internet access, a CD or DVD burner, or essentially any physical access to a computer with access to the data.

The problem is an employee putting this data on a removal storage device and then losing the device. “Now where did I leave that tiny, convenient, cheap, seemingly disposable device that can hold millions of dollars worth of internal data and customer information? Oh well, I’ll just buy another one for $10 at Target and download the info again tomorrow.”

There’s no good solution to this. Information that can be accessed by a human can be copied. The copy can be transfered — intentionally or not — to unauthorized parties.

Laptop hard drives can be encrypted. Desktop and server hard drives can be encrypted. Network communications can be encrypted. Removable storage can be encrypted or disallowed, but then employees can’t take data home and they can’t share data with legitimate third-parties (such as business partners or customers).

So, the problem is complex and there’s no panacea. That can and does make for interesting journalism, but not from a hack like Cara Garretson.

By: Blain

Blain — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 17:03:54 +0000

Agreed. Yes, it’s always been a case of sensationalism. Dog bites man is not a news story. Man bites dog is. A story of ‘People die in car accidents, so reduce your speed to 55MPH’ would not only be a nonstory to some, but would tell readers something they don’t want to hear. So goes a ‘Employers, lock down your computers and give employees less ways to goof off.’ Especially since an iPod hooked up implies an inside job, compared to someone stealing a laptop, which has been the bigger threat by far.

I did mean negate in terms of not having Zune retroactively apply DRM, yes. Although I suppose, if you are squirted a DRMed song, this allows you to make backup copies, so you can get your three plays over and over again. I don’t know how you could easily override the 3 days clause, however. Probably in mucking about with date settings.

Yes, it is roundabout and much more a hassle than a $10 memory stick, but it 1) can be done again and again with no expended hardware (IE, nothing given away) and 2) gets several panties in a bunch.

By: Astrobadger

Astrobadger — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 16:56:04 +0000

I especially liked all the supposed problems she comes up with with no actual suggested solutions. Maybe she should have just told Apple to do security Microsoft style: “You are about to download sensitive corporate information. Cancel or Allow?”

By: Tyler

Tyler — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 16:51:31 +0000

This is hilarious! What next… danger, danger the popularity of iPod may force IT depts to dump PCs for Macs? Oh, the horror!

Anyway, where I work turning off USB ports would then disable Blackberry sync usage right? Thankfully we in a Mac only dept. and IT leaves us alone.