Can an administrator of a LAN see if a user plugs in a usb-memory and copies a file?

[jaffa]

Just curious if it is possible for an administrator to somehow be notified when a user of the LAN for example connects a usb-memory stick to one of the computers inside the LAN?

Also wonder if the same admin can be notified if the same user copies a document to the usb-memory and then be able to check the content of this document aftis.

If yes to any of these questions... how can an administrator achieve this in practice (group policy??)...because it is an interesting issues for those people who want to make sure that no info leaves the LAN unnoticed.

Hope you can help me out here.

 

[Tarrant64]

I would think that there is a way to minitor all devices plugged into PC's on a LAN. How expensive software may be like that I'm not sure. I am curious about this also, as I had a friend the other day wondering if it was possible to network a USB port. I'm not sure how practicle(sp?) that would be.

I think it might be best to try and control document access and what not. I'm not sure how you would go about doing this, but I would imagine you can control whether a file is able to be copied or not, and at what times it can be accessed, among many other things. That may be the best route to go. Someone here probably has a software solution that would be able to do this.

EDIT:
Google Search gave me this: Active Network Monitor for Windows

 

[Nocturnal]

What type of device as far as USB networking goes are you interesting in sharing? You can share a printer but the computer it's attached to must always be on in order for it to be able to print.

 

[Zstream]

Originally posted by: Tarrant64
I would think that there is a way to minitor all devices plugged into PC's on a LAN. How expensive software may be like that I'm not sure. I am curious about this also, as I had a friend the other day wondering if it was possible to network a USB port. I'm not sure how practicle(sp?) that would be.

I think it might be best to try and control document access and what not. I'm not sure how you would go about doing this, but I would imagine you can control whether a file is able to be copied or not, and at what times it can be accessed, among many other things. That may be the best route to go. Someone here probably has a software solution that would be able to do this.

EDIT:
Google Search gave me this: Active Network Monitor for Windows

You can disable any external devices being plugged in if you desire, never heard of monitoring a device being plugged in.

 

[nweaver]

There are many asset managment programs that would monitor hardware, and notify the admin of a change (i.e. drive being inserted). Not sure with windows, but with *nix you could just not give user rights to mount the usb device. Will windows PnP that and install drivers/drive letter even if the logged in user is non admin?

If it works that way, I hope that's something addressed in Vista.

 

[gaidin123]

Go download this .adm template from Microsoft.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;555324

It's a group policy that lets you disable the following storage devices: USB ports, CDROM, floppy, LS120 drives. Just add this to your GPO and they won't be able to copy that floppy, or USB device anymore.

Gaidin

 

[alent1234]

It depends on the hardware purchased and the amount of monitoring that is set up. If the company owns "corporate" PC's with management features built in, than you can set up SNMP traps for various things to alert administrators. I'm writing this on a HP/Compaq Desktop 7100. If I set up the management software I can send all kinds of info to HP Insight Manager. There are also tons of options via AD Group Policy, but in my shop we haven't used them. Pretty sure you can do things like prevent saving to removable devices.

 

[netsysadmin]

Check this software out

Text

John