DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution
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@Dashrender said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@Pete-S said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@Dashrender said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@DustinB3403 said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
Any reason you can't just put super glue into the USB ports if this insurance company is so obsessed with them?
Use Bluetooth keyboard and mouse for everything and never think about these again.
yes, because we wish to use USB for other purposes.
On windows you can disable USB storage devices but keep other things working.
We need USB for storage devices - or rather - the client is saying - we want to retain the ability to do so.
so simply disabling it wholesale is not an option.So you need to block storage, while allowing storage. This gets hard. Can you define how to determine which storage is required and which is verboten?
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@scottalanmiller said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@Dashrender said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@Pete-S said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@Dashrender said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@DustinB3403 said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
Any reason you can't just put super glue into the USB ports if this insurance company is so obsessed with them?
Use Bluetooth keyboard and mouse for everything and never think about these again.
yes, because we wish to use USB for other purposes.
On windows you can disable USB storage devices but keep other things working.
We need USB for storage devices - or rather - the client is saying - we want to retain the ability to do so.
so simply disabling it wholesale is not an option.So you need to block storage, while allowing storage. This gets hard. Can you define how to determine which storage is required and which is verboten?
Exactly - you can't.
Which is why the insurance company came back with using DLP. They are OK with use using USB devices as long as we use DLP to monitor what is being saved to USB sticks.
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Ultimately the client decided it wasn't worth the hassle of buying/deploying DLP just so they could use USB sticks.
Instead - they will email or OD4B or Slack the files around that they need.
Of course - that to is against the 'spirit' of what the insurance company wants to avoid, but hey, they only asked about stopping access to USB, so the auditors are happy.
We are deploying the Reg change that disables USB storage use.
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@Dashrender said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
Ultimately the client decided it wasn't worth the hassle of buying/deploying DLP just so they could use USB sticks.
Instead - they will email or OD4B or Slack the files around that they neeSo in this case, it seems like the insurance requirement turned out to be a good thing. Pushed them to do things in a controlled, logical way rather than a crufty, silly, legacy way.
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@Dashrender so you are or aren't going to be superglueing the USB ports?
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@scottalanmiller said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@Dashrender said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
Ultimately the client decided it wasn't worth the hassle of buying/deploying DLP just so they could use USB sticks.
Instead - they will email or OD4B or Slack the files around that they neeSo in this case, it seems like the insurance requirement turned out to be a good thing. Pushed them to do things in a controlled, logical way rather than a crufty, silly, legacy way.
yes - sure, that's true, but come on, we both know that's not what the real intention of this request is/was - or at least I personally don't believe that someone at the insurance company has a personal vendetta against USB storage - but really, they are trying to prevent insurance data from being leaked... and when they were considering how things get leaked - they crazily started and stopped with USB storage.
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@DustinB3403 said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@Dashrender so you are or aren't going to be superglueing the USB ports?
I really hope this isn't a real question.
But to answer it anyway - hell no I'm not. We still have USB keyboards and mice and scanners, etc.
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@Dashrender said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@scottalanmiller said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@Dashrender said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
Ultimately the client decided it wasn't worth the hassle of buying/deploying DLP just so they could use USB sticks.
Instead - they will email or OD4B or Slack the files around that they neeSo in this case, it seems like the insurance requirement turned out to be a good thing. Pushed them to do things in a controlled, logical way rather than a crufty, silly, legacy way.
yes - sure, that's true, but come on, we both know that's not what the real intention of this request is/was - or at least I personally don't believe that someone at the insurance company has a personal vendetta against USB storage - but really, they are trying to prevent insurance data from being leaked... and when they were considering how things get leaked - they crazily started and stopped with USB storage.
Well, I don't know. Let's think about it... USB sticks being allowed is an extremely weird thing to want to keep. It's a super dangerous activity with little reason to be allowed in the modern world. So anyone doing it is likely to be doing loads of risky, stupid things because the reason to want to do it is almost certainly a bad one.
The goal is easily to heavily punish bad behaviour and/or encourage rethinking bad decisions. It's isolated, but it worked. Something risky and dumb turned into something modern and practical in a pretty predictable way. The insurance company pushed them to fix a process that you as IT alone could not do.
Do assume insurance companies are dumb when they do something that turns out really smart. They do their homework.
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@Dashrender said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@scottalanmiller said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@Dashrender said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
Ultimately the client decided it wasn't worth the hassle of buying/deploying DLP just so they could use USB sticks.
Instead - they will email or OD4B or Slack the files around that they neeSo in this case, it seems like the insurance requirement turned out to be a good thing. Pushed them to do things in a controlled, logical way rather than a crufty, silly, legacy way.
yes - sure, that's true, but come on, we both know that's not what the real intention of this request is/was - or at least I personally don't believe that someone at the insurance company has a personal vendetta against USB storage - but really, they are trying to prevent insurance data from being leaked... and when they were considering how things get leaked - they crazily started and stopped with USB storage.
So wouldn't it be prudent to inform your insurance that data can be emailed, printed, dropbox'd, OD4B etc and that there is no way to control each of these and still operate the business?
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@DustinB3403 said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
So wouldn't it be prudent to inform your insurance that data can be emailed, printed, dropbox'd, OD4B etc and that there is no way to control each of these and still operate the business?
Way more ability to control all of those.
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@scottalanmiller said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@DustinB3403 said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
So wouldn't it be prudent to inform your insurance that data can be emailed, printed, dropbox'd, OD4B etc and that there is no way to control each of these and still operate the business?
Way more ability to control all of those.
How so, you would get tracking and a speck of more control over the data. I wouldn't see it as being the golden rule here.
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@scottalanmiller said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
because the reason to want to do it is almost certainly a bad one.
We simply disagree here - it's legacy, sure, but I wouldn't call it bad. though - of course in typing this - at least with email/dropbox/OD4B, etc there is much less chance of a tag along virus (short of the file itself being infected) compared to a USB stick... ok fine - you win, it's probably a bad idea to still do that today.
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@Dashrender said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
ok fine - you win, it's probably a bad idea to still do that today.
You sound like any person in an argument with their SO.
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@scottalanmiller said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@Dashrender said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@scottalanmiller said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@Dashrender said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
Ultimately the client decided it wasn't worth the hassle of buying/deploying DLP just so they could use USB sticks.
Instead - they will email or OD4B or Slack the files around that they neeSo in this case, it seems like the insurance requirement turned out to be a good thing. Pushed them to do things in a controlled, logical way rather than a crufty, silly, legacy way.
yes - sure, that's true, but come on, we both know that's not what the real intention of this request is/was - or at least I personally don't believe that someone at the insurance company has a personal vendetta against USB storage - but really, they are trying to prevent insurance data from being leaked... and when they were considering how things get leaked - they crazily started and stopped with USB storage.
Well, I don't know. Let's think about it... USB sticks being allowed is an extremely weird thing to want to keep. It's a super dangerous activity with little reason to be allowed in the modern world. So anyone doing it is likely to be doing loads of risky, stupid things because the reason to want to do it is almost certainly a bad one.
The goal is easily to heavily punish bad behaviour and/or encourage rethinking bad decisions. It's isolated, but it worked. Something risky and dumb turned into something modern and practical in a pretty predictable way. The insurance company pushed them to fix a process that you as IT alone could not do.
Do assume insurance companies are dumb when they do something that turns out really smart. They do their homework.
Their stated reason for wanting no USB was - "so our data doesn't walk out of your company." So while what you say has merit - it's not ever been a reason given for it's discontinued use... and hell, if it had.... if they had said - "you know, USB is legacy and carries the risk of passing infections along much more easily than say - emailing the data to someone, or using Dropbox, etc, so we'd much rather you share our data via those processes than via USB - and we'd like you to disable USB because reasons already mentioned" then the client would have likely gone that way from the start.
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@DustinB3403 said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@Dashrender said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@scottalanmiller said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@Dashrender said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
Ultimately the client decided it wasn't worth the hassle of buying/deploying DLP just so they could use USB sticks.
Instead - they will email or OD4B or Slack the files around that they neeSo in this case, it seems like the insurance requirement turned out to be a good thing. Pushed them to do things in a controlled, logical way rather than a crufty, silly, legacy way.
yes - sure, that's true, but come on, we both know that's not what the real intention of this request is/was - or at least I personally don't believe that someone at the insurance company has a personal vendetta against USB storage - but really, they are trying to prevent insurance data from being leaked... and when they were considering how things get leaked - they crazily started and stopped with USB storage.
So wouldn't it be prudent to inform your insurance that data can be emailed, printed, dropbox'd, OD4B etc and that there is no way to control each of these and still operate the business?
Why would I volunteer myself for more work? My only requirement is to fulfill the audit requirements, not make more work and more spending for myself.
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@Dashrender said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
Why would I volunteer myself for more work? My only requirement is to fulfill the audit requirements, not make more work and more spending for myself.
To get the insurance provider to stop forcing ridiculous half-baked policy statements on their customers.
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@DustinB3403 said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@Dashrender said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
Why would I volunteer myself for more work? My only requirement is to fulfill the audit requirements, not make more work and more spending for myself.
To get the insurance provider to stop forcing ridiculous half-baked policy statements on their customers.
As a security minded person (though still not as good as Scott apparently) - I agree with that... but in this case, doing so is against the interest of my client (at least in term of me billing them more to deploy a DLP solution, etc).
Now that said - I did say something to the client. If the client wants to tell the insurance company (they don't) then by all means - we would tell them and go forward as needed/required by the insurance company.
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Threatlocker? Leaves MacOS out though.
https://www.threatlocker.com/products/threatlocker-storage-control/ -
@Dashrender said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@scottalanmiller said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
because the reason to want to do it is almost certainly a bad one.
We simply disagree here - it's legacy, sure, but I wouldn't call it bad. though - of course in typing this - at least with email/dropbox/OD4B, etc there is much less chance of a tag along virus (short of the file itself being infected) compared to a USB stick... ok fine - you win, it's probably a bad idea to still do that today.
So Suzie office worker finds a "free" USB drive in the parking lot and plugs it into her computer.
Allowing uncontrolled USB drives is a big security concern. And a policy saying you can only use company ones is useless because policies don't stop the thing from happening once someone breaks the policy.
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@Dashrender said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@scottalanmiller said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@Dashrender said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@scottalanmiller said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
@Dashrender said in DLP (Data Loss Prevention) solution:
Ultimately the client decided it wasn't worth the hassle of buying/deploying DLP just so they could use USB sticks.
Instead - they will email or OD4B or Slack the files around that they neeSo in this case, it seems like the insurance requirement turned out to be a good thing. Pushed them to do things in a controlled, logical way rather than a crufty, silly, legacy way.
yes - sure, that's true, but come on, we both know that's not what the real intention of this request is/was - or at least I personally don't believe that someone at the insurance company has a personal vendetta against USB storage - but really, they are trying to prevent insurance data from being leaked... and when they were considering how things get leaked - they crazily started and stopped with USB storage.
Well, I don't know. Let's think about it... USB sticks being allowed is an extremely weird thing to want to keep. It's a super dangerous activity with little reason to be allowed in the modern world. So anyone doing it is likely to be doing loads of risky, stupid things because the reason to want to do it is almost certainly a bad one.
The goal is easily to heavily punish bad behaviour and/or encourage rethinking bad decisions. It's isolated, but it worked. Something risky and dumb turned into something modern and practical in a pretty predictable way. The insurance company pushed them to fix a process that you as IT alone could not do.
Do assume insurance companies are dumb when they do something that turns out really smart. They do their homework.
Their stated reason for wanting no USB was - "so our data doesn't walk out of your company." So while what you say has merit - it's not ever been a reason given for it's discontinued use... and hell, if it had.... if they had said - "you know, USB is legacy and carries the risk of passing infections along much more easily than say - emailing the data to someone, or using Dropbox, etc, so we'd much rather you share our data via those processes than via USB - and we'd like you to disable USB because reasons already mentioned" then the client would have likely gone that way from the start.
They can most likely track where the data was leaked through email or something else like Dropbox. That's almost impossible with USB drives without something like DLP. So yes while it doesn't necessarily stop someone from leaking data that way, it's at least somewhat traceable.
