Journal gd2shoe's Journal: USB Solution 1
I was meta-moderating today, and came across an article that I missed several days ago. It concerned Microsoft's plan to introduce DRM (or something similar) to the USB specification.
Their concern: Employees are stealing sensitive information on thumb drives.
Their solution: We require all hardware manufactures to include DRM in the USB specs.
Wait a minute! First, if you cannot trust your employees then you have a problem. Admittedly there are some (read: very few) places where such security is called for. In order to get me to take you seriously, you first need to have these computers totally isolated from the internet. I also wouldn't take you very seriously if you told me that the machines had floppy drives. Now what would happen if you simply took out the "Removable Hard Disk" drivers (or even if Microsoft had a patch that removed automatic volume detection). Tweak the idea a little (find the bugs that I haven't thought of) and voila: you have a viable solution. Easy.
Of course, the easier thing is to simply avoid USB technology. But think ahead, instead of backwards. I cannot stand it when the corporate world wants to make us take a step back in technology to suit their "needs", but especially in freedom...
DRM is a red herring in this issue (Score:2)