Re: [tlug] Who do you recommend for Business Desktop?

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

>>>>> "Botond" == Botond Botyanszki <tlug@example.com> writes:

    Botond> I'm curious about how a drive can prevent data theft? 

Anybody who thinks about "prevention" is either a major national
security organization with nearly unlimited budget for limited
objectives, or not really thinking.  It's an issue of "risk
reduction" vs cost, and it's not hard to see how this reduces risk at
very low cost.

For one thing, it makes it hard for non-thieves to accidentally walk
out with it, and then have a thief get access to it.  USB dangles (not
"dongle" because they really do dangle, just like keitais with their
straps) are (a) hanging around your neck (or in my case looped through
a ring on my briefcase), not lying on a counter or stuffed into a
stack of papers, and (b) they cost about 100 times as much as
floppies, so you're less likely to mislay them.  (Yeah, I know, the
data is worth 100 times as much as the USB dangle whether it's on
floppy or flashdrive, but for some reason real people key on media
cost.)  "Dumpster diving" has compromised more secrets than any hacker
in history.  :-)

You know about Windows NT's prized "C" security rating (DoD Orange
Book)?  Of course it's meaningless because (1) any network connection
rated below "C" to any computer rated below "C" automatically blows
the "C" rating and (2) the "C" rating is awarded to the whole
installation, not to the OS---you can't install any software or add
accounts without losing the "C" rating!

Moral: the DoD thinks that the less you have installed, and the fewer
ways you can communicate, the more secure you are.  In security, I
trust the DoD to get the theory right.

Note that lack of floppies, CD ROMs, etc makes installation of
unauthorized software harder, too.

-- 
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences     http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
University of Tsukuba                    Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
               Ask not how you can "do" free software business;
              ask what your business can "do for" free software.