In a seemingly unenforceable move, IBM has banned its employees “from using removable memory devices such as USB sticks, SD cards and flash drives.” The company’s global chief information security officer Shamla Naidoo said that “the possible financial and reputational damage from misplaced, lost or misused removable portable storage devices must be minimised.”
And sure, okay. So what’s the next corporate nanny move from Big Blue in the interest of financial and reputational security? Literally chaining people to their desks to prevent employees leaving the premises with proprietary information? Unannounced strip searches? Mandatory body cameras? I’m sure there’s plenty IBM can do to further eliminate any shred of trust it has with employees.
[BBC, The Register]
Image: iStock/OlyaSoloDenko
Who still uses flash drives when there are secure methods to store and share data that don’t involve physical media?
Yeah a little unsure why Caleb took that tone at the end… a flash drive can… oh I don’t know… cripple an entire country’s Nuclear Program *cough* Iran.