Pod Slurping

While the idea of stealing company data through use of an external device is not new, the type of devices available to do this deed has increased signigicantly. One that is particularly small yet capable of stealing a very large amount of data is Apple's iPod and the use of the iPod to steal such data is given the name Pod Slurping.

The technique is simplicity itself: The janitor comes in after hours wearing his iPod with headphones and proceeds to go from office to office cleaning and copying. So long as the person has physical access to the computer and one of the USB ports is somehow available, the data can be taken from a computer quite rapidly and the iPod is capable of holding a good deal of data (20 to 30GB now; more later). Getting around log-in passwords can be as easy as carrying along a boot CD.

To protect against any such attacks (not just Pod Slurping) keep portable devices away from your computers, disable USB connections in the BIOS and password-protect access to the BIOS, encrypt all important data files, and, in a network situation, consider keeping important data on protected servers and not on desktop computers.

More Information

• Sharp Ideas Article