HASP USB Drive?

[ForSciGuy]

Hello,
I have a quick question about a HASP USB drive. I was setting up a printer for one of our work computers and noticed a weird USB drive connected to the back. Not knowing what it was I wrote down the lettering on it and did a quick internet search. It turns out it is a HASP USB drive, which from what I have read is some type of Digital Rights software. I was just wondering if it needs to stay in there or if it is something the IT people ( I am in forensics not IT) accidentally left in there and would be looking for (i.e. should I call them and let them know).
Thanks for any input.

 

[JackMDS]

If you give us the phone number of the IT people in your organization we can call and ask.

 

[ForSciGuy]

thanks for the offer.
I can call, I was just hoping to know whether or not I needed to since I am not looking forward to traking down whoever I need to over at IT only to have them tell me it needs to stay in. So I figured I would post here to see if anyone has dealt with HASP.

 

[mpilchfamily]

I'd call IT about it. For all you know the drive could be running a key logger. Which would be recording every keystrock you make. So whoes ever it is will know your passwords and posibly account information for everything you log in and out of on that PC.

 

[ForSciGuy]

yeah, that was my origianl thought when I saw it and why I wrote down the info and searched it on the internet. Luckily, it does not seem to be a key logger. I guess I will just call IT and and see if I can explain it well enough that they will know what I am talking about and if they want it back.

 

[mpilchfamily]

Just because the caseing of the device is one thing doesn't mean whats inside is the same thing.

 

[Elixer]

I know some networked printers/scanners use USB drives to make backup images of what people are doing with the machine. It is usually located on the inside of the unit. Since this is a computer, it could be a dongle/DRM, but most of those are made so you can't remove the device. If it is removeable, then I would say this is suspicious.

 

[Zap]

There are some specialized software that use dongles (USB now, used to be parallel/serial) for DRM. I've encountered them before, usually parallel port versions.

Wikipedia

 

[Viper GTS]

It's not a keylogger, it's a software key. Two minutes on Google should have told you that.

http://www.aladdin.com/hasp/default.aspx

They are one of the biggest (if not the biggest) in the dongle market. Something on that system requires a dongle to run, do not remove it. Typically it's going to be non mass market software, and things with high price tags.

Viper GTS

 

[Arcanedeath]

HASP keys are very common for specialty software, I have a photographer friend that has to use one to make his Photo management & billing system works (Sucessware I think?) Also if your into cars ALLData requires a HASP key to work if you have the Stand alone Version.