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Security - Restricting to specific USB sticks

S

SCiFiRE

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 13, 2000
Messages
1,318
Hi Guys,
really wasnt sure where to post it, so i have posted it here and in networking/security.

Ive got some laptops at work, and i want to stop people from using unauthorised USB sticks. I do NOT want to restrict USB sticks completely, as it not only makes my job harder but also negates our emergency file-transfer system if our wireless goes down.

So Im wondering if there is a method or some software that would have the laptops only accept two or three specific USB sticks (via device ID, or a certificate file, some sort of encyption even)?

The laptops are all running Windows XP SP2
 
Yea, the never ending IT nightmare. Stupid users.

I've never heard of such a thing, but that don't mean it's not possible.

Maybe something to do with Group Policies can do what you want. Are the offending devices in a Domain?

Hmm, something like this might be what you need. Cut and paste the URL, but not the x at the beginning. The Boso's won't allow outside links for some stupid reason.

xhttp://www.scriptlogic.com/products/desktopauthority/usbsecurityfeatures.asp

It says you can setup whitelists of allowed USB devices among a gazzillion other things.

Or maybe this will work for you.

A search on "USB Whitelist" will bring up some other hits that may be of interest.

Don't know what kind of budget you are working with, but it looks like the only thing you can do for free in Windows is to disable all USB storage devices.

Don
 
Only think i can find on group policies is how to disable all USB storage, and the devices are not on a doman or anything. They only have wireless so they can access a shared drive via FTP. If that goes down we need USB. Its an odd situation, as they are the only computers in the business NOT supported by the contracted IT dept, for various reasons, so they dont get logged onto the domain or get access to shared drives.

anyway, Budget isn't really a problem, but need something light-weight
thats not going to affect milling software thats installed on the laptops. I knew there would be software somewhere I just couldnt seem to search for the right thing. Ive found a few options now, most of them have trial downloads too, So i can make sure they do not interfere with the core-business software.
thanks for that!
 
SCiFiRE said:
Only think i can find on group policies is how to disable all USB storage, and the devices are not on a doman or anything. They only have wireless so they can access a shared drive via FTP. If that goes down we need USB. Its an odd situation, as they are the only computers in the business NOT supported by the contracted IT dept, for various reasons, so they dont get logged onto the domain or get access to shared drives.

anyway, Budget isn't really a problem, but need something light-weight
thats not going to affect milling software thats installed on the laptops. I knew there would be software somewhere I just couldnt seem to search for the right thing. Ive found a few options now, most of them have trial downloads too, So i can make sure they do not interfere with the core-business software.
thanks for that!
Click to expand...

Milling software. Interesting. I had a brief stink of working on machine tool controllers for Fanuc America earlier this year. Cool job, but they just didn't pay enough.

Good luck, hope you find something that will work for you.

Don
 
We have a software that would probably allow you to limit USB devices. Its called Pointsec Protector.

I'm not in the IT dept, but our IT dept has disabled certain types of usb devices and also removed the ability to run .exe files from usb drives. They do not currently limit specific USB drives, but it seems like the software is configurable enough to do that.

It also encrypts all thumb drives inserted in the computer, which are then password protected even if you later insert it into a computer without the software. It seems pretty light- it doesn't interfere with anything else on my computer.
 
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