IT Managers glue up USB ports Cut and paste willl fix itBy Nick Farrell: Tuesday 04 July 2006, 07:25 NETWORK MANAGERS are using tubes of super glue to protect their systems from data theft.Outfits are getting so hot and bothered at the loss of corporate data that they are removing writable drives and ordering network staff to pour superglue into USB ports, according to The Australian Financial Review.Many firms are banning portable storage devices such as memory sticks and to make sure that none are snuck in, super glue is being seen as the answer.Of course, there are heaps of other ways of getting data out of the system without USB devices and if someone really wants to take data out of the system, a bit of super glue isn’t going to stop them.
Dat soundin like iz a NAZI come up wit dat!
Bosses get new toy to track employees' mobile phones We know where you areBy Nick Farrell: Monday 07 August 2006, 13:45 A SCOTTISH company has released hardware that will enable bosses to track where their employees are by finding their mobile phones.Trisent, based in Dunfermline, claims its Trilocator product is more accurate and cheaper than GPS Cell-ID systems. Although an employee has the option of turning off their phone to switch the surveillance system off, civil liberty groups fear that there will be incredible pressures on staff to let the boss know where they are all the time. The Sydney Morning Herald quotes Doug Jewell, a spokesman for the rights group Liberty as saying that just because a person gives up eight hours a day to an employer did not mean that they owned you. He said that there was no reason for an employer to know where you are 24/7. A spokesTrisent said all of its clients must sign up to its code of practice. When the phone is switched on the employee is told that they are being tracked. There is no way that a boss can secretly monitor someone. The system has been tested by the Russian telecoms giant VimpelCom. Apparently there were few complaints as the many of its workers remembered what it was like being tracked by people who wanted to know what they were up to all the time. Mobile phone tracking used to be considered an invasion of privacy in Britain. However the laws were relaxed in May after lobbying from parents who wanted to keep track of their children. A child tracking service is going to be released in August which will make it harder to lose the little urchins than at any time in history. µ