Full Disclosure mailing list archives

Re: New Laptop Polices


From: Bob Radvanovsky <rsradvan () unixworks net>
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 11:50:58 -0500

I was always under the impression that BIOS security features could always be circumvented.  See further comments 
below...

-r

----- Original Message -----
From: J. Oquendo [mailto:sil () infiltrated net]
To: Bob Radvanovsky [mailto:rsradvan () unixworks net]
Cc: "Cullen, Michael" [mailto:michael.cullen () umusic com], full-disclosure () lists grok org uk
Subject: Re: [Full-disclosure] New Laptop Polices


Bob Radvanovsky wrote:
You mean the fact that you are *erquired* now to *check* your laptop along
with your baggage?  Take into account that most laptops aren't easy to
remove the hard disk drives, and that most laptops of corporate and/or
government executives contain either sensitive or classified information, I
don't seriously think that the UK government, nor its corporations, have
taken into consideration all of the consequences involved.  Take for example
the ongoing issues of laptops mysteriously disappearing (esp. the Veteran's
Administration...I lost count, how many has it been, 5 times?) that contains
spreadsheets and/or databases that contains *private* information.
  

You're confusing two things here. What one corporation and their 
policies concerning securing information have to do with his initial 
question is obsolete. I'm under the impression of his message he didn't 
mean the safety of his data. But in case he did then he needs a lot of 
reading to do going back in time to days of the rainbow series books.

You may be right, but I was confused as to what his objectives were here, of which, one of the more important aspects 
should be "data security", so this raises a *whole* can 'o worms.

The UK needs to consider the implications about *how* they will cover the
loss of financial, sensitive or classified information...

  
I don't believe (again) this was his initial question, whether or not 
the officials in the airline industry give a rats rear of whether or not 
corporate/private data is secure.

True, a moot point.

Just my 2 cents worth, which by today's standards doesn't even get you a
piece of gum any more...sad, isn't it?

-r

P.S.  I think that corporations now need to state that corporate
executives should NOT have corporate data on their hard disk drives; further
locking down corporate assets.  I think that they should make it easier for
the removal of hard disk drives to be removed so they aren't stolen.

  
And you hope to accomplish this how? I can agree that data needs to be 
minimized but there are plenty of options available to completely lock 
down any laptop from the BIOS on up so I fail to see what you were truly 
hoping to state.

Actually, wasn't there a mention about a self-destructing DVD just recently?  This would be worthwhile to investigate 
into, or the other idea about imaging the laptop in case it's stolen or damaged during transport.


====================================================
J. Oquendo
http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x1383A743
GPG Key ID 0x1383A743
Fingerprint:
7B02 28CF 24D3 ACA7 9907  789A 8772 7736 1383 A743
26:0608031813:J. Oquendo::fNaE6zH/HDTggYKS:005zLMj

sil . infiltrated @ net
http://www.infiltrated.net


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