Yet another Gates goof

[catgate]

"With USB devices, if you plug it straight into the computer you can bypass passwords and get right on the system," RAF Wing Commander Peter D'Ardenne told Reuters on Tuesday.

"That's why we had to plug that gap," he said, adding that the policy was put into effect when the MoD switched to the USB-friendly Microsoft XP operating system over the past year.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040713/80/exvzv.html

[-pops-]

Interesting, that.

I've passed it over to my son as it confirms something he had thought for some time about spying on his business.

I build all my son's machines as he wants them made to a defined spec that he can't get commercially (also makes me a bit of money and keeps the brain working). We also know then that they are as "clean" as possible.

He sometimes gets sales reps (for all sorts of techno gizmos and mundane items alike) coming to his studio wielding these USB plug-in memory sticks and similar things with demonstrations of items they are trying to sell.

Wisely (we now know) he refuses to let them use any of his machines for these demos as he has long thought that they could be used nefariously. I'm not saying they were used like that, just that they could be.

Thanks a lot for that info, catgate :) :)

[Scarecrow Man]

This has been an issue since USB 'keys' like that have come out.

They have the ability to do many things. flash a bios, run a keylogger, hold a virus... etc.

They are very handy, but also dangerous in the wrong hands, but isn't any weapon? This is just a computer weapon, if you think about it.

What I mean is, a Knife is a tool for cutting, but also a weapon for killing....