Mr.Scrooge wrote:
--- Robin Laing <Robin.Laing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Mike wrote:
Mike <mike.cloaked <at> gmail.com> writes:
Are that many people really that careless with their laptops? I think people worry too much about
encrypting laptops. If a company has it's shit together they are not letting you go home with
sensitive info(They should be preventing cd burning and removable media,disabling such actions
,even not having such devices installed, no usb ports on PC's, physical locks on PC case,no
offline files, etc...), all data should be backed up to a network location that has strict
security. A well thought out security scheme considers this and more. If you are among the few
that are allowed to do so (a handful maybe?) then hopefully you are not so irresponsible as to
leave it unsecured (by which i mean out of your sight) If someone targets you because of your job
then its probably fair to say that you deal with sensitive info, so they will( by which i mean i
would) be counting on encryption and be prepared to deal with it. Most of the high profile stories
i have seen involve employees taking home info they should not have in the first place. Again the
organization's IT Dept. should be disabling cd burning and removable media to reduce the incidence
of such cases.Prevent the copying of files off the local volume or network location. Considering
average "real world" user skill levels that would probably prevent most such incidents.
You are missing a point here. Many people use their laptop instead of a
desktop because they need to move this information and have it when they
are away from the office. In my job, many people work at multiple
locations and need their information for their work. Not all sites have
network access (even though we want it). Most people in my section use
laptops like this.
There are also the telecommuters that need to have access to information
away from the main work site. Executives making presentations or going
to meetings.
As a home user, I want encryption to protect my banking and other usage.
My wife uses the laptop instead of a laptop. She wants her
information protected.
As for theft. Just going between work and home can be a loss. You lock
your laptop into the trunk of your car and your car gets broken into
while you run into the store to get milk. Electric trunk locks make it
easy for a thief to get into your trunk and your laptop is gone.
And as said before, encryption may be a requirement.
http://www.p2pnet.net/story/14518
Make data loss a crime, say UK MPs
We all don't live in the ideal IT world.
Of course Fedora has put in SELINUX and firewalls. All in efforts to
prevent corruption of systems and data. Encryption is just another tool
to assist in this endeavor. At least how I see it.
--
Robin Laing
