There is an article about the potential danger of USB drives in the July 2007 issue of Bank Systems & Technology. While they discuss the lack of security precautions that are taken by companies on this issue, I couldn’t help but notice that iPods and other MP3 players were not mentioned. Personally, I take my iPod to work everyday and listen to music. I know there are other employees at my bank that bring in their iPods also. In case you didn’t know, the newer iPods can have up to 80 gigs of memory. I don’t know about your financial institution, but that is more than most of the drives on our servers. A typical USB thumb drive holds from 2 to 8 gig of data.

I know of more employees at my bank that have iPods than those that have thumb drives. Granted, there are tools that can secure your computers from iPods, but this may cause an uproar. I know I don’t want to tell a VP that they can’t listen to their iPod through iTunes on their computer because of security issues. However, the security staff and upper management needs to understand the potential risk that music players have on their systems. Especially when that music player can take a few databases right out your front door.

Originaly from Source