Enterprise Networking Planet: "Tiny, almost undetectable and with almost limitless powers to wreak havoc on your network: USB drives are like thousands of back doors through which malicious code can sneak in and confidential data can gush out whenever your back is turned.
The rise in popularity of USB flash memory drives over the last few years has been as inexorable as their falling prices. Instantly recognized by Windows XP or Mac OS X without the need to install any drivers, they can be used to copy gigabytes of data from your network, or to introduce applications, data, viruses and malware in a matter of minutes. In fact it's not just flash drives that are a problem. Any MP3 player with a USB interface � and that includes almost all players, including Apple's iPod � can also be used as a data storage medium, with the potential to hold tens of gigabytes of information which can be transferred to or from the network. IDC predicts that sales of mini-hard disks � most of them portable devices and many built in to MP3 players � will increase by 500 per cent to 100 million units a year by 2008."
No comments:
Post a Comment