There is no technological gizmo to keep a car driver from driving in the wrong direction, is there ?
Access to sensitive information is the same thing. If you already have the access, you can do as you please with it.
Email ? You can eventually block all outgoing email until a third party has approved it. Setting aside privacy concerns (who controls the top managers email ?), it will not prevent a user having access to data from printing it, or photocopying it.
Are you going to prevent printing ? I'd like to see you succeed in doing that. Take all the printers away and see how long it takes for a manager to roll into your office spitting desk shavings at you.
What about fax machines ? You can put them all in one room and have a certified, trusted person to check all outgoing faxes. Can you do that ?
You'll have to check all outgoing normal mail also - BEFORE the envelope is sealed. In truth, that shouldn't be a major issue anyway.
Control photocopying ? What's the use of that (security-wise) if one can print ? Zilch.
You can disable floppy units, users are rarely supposed to use those in a networked environment anyway. That will probably not ruffle many feathers. You must also control any CD burners that might be lying around (no reason for one of those in a normal office).
Oh, and let's not forget the lowly phone. Conversations will have to be recorded (and listend to !).
So, if you have secured e-mail and fax machines, phones and paper copies, there is only one measure left : make a security guard check each and every person every time they leave the building.
Why ? Well, what is the use of limiting faxes and controlling email if one can print a sheaf of documents and take them out of the premises without worrying ?
So, you lock down the mail (each and every one, regardless of sender), you record phone calls, you control outgoing faxes, you monitor copying machines and forbid printing and, finally, you have every outgoing person (worker, client, the cleaning guy) frisked and every container (including handbags) opened, systematically (no exceptions, no excuses).
There, you have a secure environment - until somebody finds a loophole you forgot.
Plus, you have a lot of stressed, unhappy workers who feel that they are considered as thieves.
Even banks do not have security guards at the personnel exit. It is called trust, and it is a basic building block of any relationship. In the workplace environment, it is thankfully considered a crime to abuse that trust, and I have yet to know of any judgement that was lenient on such behavior if the facts were undisputable.
The law is the last barrier to bad behavior. There is no technical substitute for that.
Pascal.
![[pc]](/data/assets/smilies/pc.gif "[pc] [pc]")
