Sunday, March 05, 2006

Google Copies Corporate Data to Google's Servers?

Slashdot Google Copies Corporate Data to Google's Servers?

It's clearly stated during the install, but Google is getting busted for copying corporate files to Google's servers via Google Desktop.

I hate to say it, but it's all about user education and standardising corporate desktops.

If non-standard applications are being installed by uneducated users... the corporate already has an a problem.

We have a single standard desktop (IT Admins and Developers being the only major exceptions) and a rappidly improving change control process to go through if exceptions are required.

You're average corporate user should not have sufficient privledges to install aplications on their desktops. And yeah, I know the software people are finding new and clever ways to get around this, especially through the use of browser plug-ins, which often seem to require minimal privs to install/work.

If you must install Google Desktop or anything really, use Group Policy to limit or even lock down the configuration. Then if that's not enough, you can always use your firewalls or Intrusion Prevention devices to block the outgoing traffic.

But that's just my 2c. It's nice to feel that corporately, we're pretty much on top of this one... it's rare.

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