?Network security and thumb drives

[jar2163]

I am wondering if anyone has had any experience with multiple thumb drives being used on a network, or what things can be put in place to secure the use of the usb port?

 

[Boscoh]

I believe if you have a Windows domain you can restrict rights of that user to install new devices...which I would think would prohibit them from using a thumb drive. You can also disable the USB ports in the BIOS if you dont need to use them and put a password on the BIOS so users cant get into it.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

I'm not sure that USB drives are considered "new devices" as far as those restrictions are concerned. I know that I plugged my USB FLASH drive into a system at a friend's office that was "buttoned down" as he said, and it allowed me to connect and copy files to the drive.

 

[djNickb]

This is correct, here at work depending on the type of use they have different access level accounts on their machines. This actually happened here where someone bought one and because of their account type they were unable to install the device. I believe they had power user status to their local machine but I'm not 100% on that

 

[mboy]

I believe in a win2k Domain (or2k3) you can disable the USB ports in Group policy.