Two of the biggest potential problems these days for the security of the information maintained by businesses these days consists, in my mind at least, of two things:
A:Â People walking in off the street and stealing your files (the ‘invisible man’ syndrome)
B:Â Employees using USB sticks, iPods, and big websites to copy files to.
The sad irony is that most people will ignore a lot of people – so if you dress as the water cooler guy, or simply have a bemused look on your face, most people will kindly direct you to the floor with all the info on it (they won’t quite hold the bag open for you, but they may do).
In fact, last night I went to a corporate dinner with the firm’s partners, and we must have all looked very trustworthy as we milled around outside of the building (it being after 6, it was locked off) for about 10 seconds until a kind soul let us in. Very helpful, but he should be glad we weren’t the Russian mafia.
The second thing is – tada – iPods. Not only are they the bane of the music industry, they also make it nice and easy to sneak home lots of client data if you were so inclined. As pointed out in this article by Shane Schick of the Globe and Mail, an iPod can ‘slurp’ many, many, files, and in most cases it will remain undetectable.Â