Have just discovered something

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although it's been around for a while apparently, I thought I'd let you lot know incase you hadn't heard.

If someone downloads puppy linux and puts it onto a usb flash drive it allows the user to cause havoc with the pc.

Switch off USB/Floppy/CD in your BIOS just to be safe since linux puppy is an .iso.

 

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yes, although this is true wherever a user could boot in to their own environment in all fairness mate.
If you booted from an XP disc you could perform your own installation.

 

even the old dos floppy disks could do the same. Anything bootable would cause problems if the boot order is set to check that device before the HDD.

Ultimately though, you just implement policies that severely punish offenders - you cant nanny them for everything, otherwise you might as well just give them a sheet of paper and an abacus.

I heard a story about some guy who was temped into a company. On his first day he duly took instructions, then sauntered off to his desk. Before the morning was out, he was forcibly turfed onto the street, after being caught with a linux distro he was installing onto 'his' machine.

 

True, although you can amend the boot order and password protect the BIOS in this case.

 

I had never thought about it to be honest, I realised it could be done with cd but never thought about a flash drive. No wonder the IT manager at my place is paranoid about USB flash drives.

 

Thats why i use Linux for data recovery.

is this not covered in the S+?

 

its 'relatively' new to be honest. Not all MOBO's will allow booting from a USB stick. But it is becoming much more available.

TO be honest, USB drives are the replacement for floppy drives, outright banning them is just going to cause frustration as people cant use it as an easy way to transfer data back and forth. Besides, banning it only means that you are taking the hit on network traffic instead (as everyone emails it, etc). Much better to regulate it to some extent, and let it take place.

 

To be honest, all motherboards from about the last 5 years or so have been able to boot from USB, I have some Via C7 based boards that do let alone some of the newer AMD\Intel boards.

 

I have a USB drive with Dam Small Linux on, i keep in my bag just in case.

 

yep. sudo ls hw has rescued me many a time by identifying the chipset allowing me to find the windows driver!

 

I'd rather take the hit on network traffic, we're developing a wonderful level of paranoia in regards to people wondering off with important business documents at least if its sent out via our email system its monitored. That and of course with USB drives being the floppy replacement they are of course the most likely way for people to carry viruses/trojans etc into the building and although I do have a lot of confidence in our anti-virus I'd prefer to remove a potential attack vector entirely.

 

yep, if the network has been planned with the business needs, there should be little use for USB (with regards to drive letters). Block 'um!

 

Fixed that for you.