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copy protection through USB port


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A true 'copy protection' can only be achieved by controlling who or what could read the protected data.

 

Suppose I have access to read it, so i read it using a hex-workshop and I save that data to another location, behold "Copy Protection" was defeated.

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Do you want to protect a USB stick with files on it or stop copying files via a usb ports?

 

I want  stop copying files from my PC via a usb ports

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Assuming you control the machines you want to prevent usb copying from?

You could disable the ports in bios, and make sure the bios is password protected to prevent changes.

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At work, we fill our USB ports with epoxy glue.

 

Extreme... but that is very effective :)

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Hello,

 

What you are looking for is a feature called portable device control or information rights management.  With the former, removable devices are blocked (or allowed) to have files written to them.  With the latter, files have permissions which allow them to be blocked (or allowed) to be written to removable devices.

 

From your description, it sounds like you are more interested in the former.

 

I would suggest checking with your anti-malware company to see if they offer this as a feature--it could be your anti-malware software already does this and you just have to enable the feature.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

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If you're not concerned about using the USB ports for anything else the majority of modern PC's allow you to lockdown the USB ports from the BIOS for example.  A simple but elegant solution that might work for you.

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I'm with @Intersect on this one - there should be a GPO (Group Policy Object) that you should be able to enforce that will disable copying files to removable media. It's 1:28am here, and I'd love to find the proper GPO for you, but if you could wait ~8hrs I'd be more than happy to help you with this.

 

--ScottKin

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At work, we fill our USB ports with epoxy glue.

Might seem stupid but as long as someone has physical access to the machine it is the only way.  There is ABSOLUTELY NO SOFTWARE fix as long as someone has physical access.

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Not copy protection, but these two links will help to prevent USB access completely.

 

Microsoft suggest this: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/823732

It can also be done via GPO apparently: http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/25619-blocking-usb-devices-and-removable-media

 

I'm not entirely sure if they work, but I hope it helps!

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Might seem stupid but as long as someone has physical access to the machine it is the only way.  There is ABSOLUTELY NO SOFTWARE fix as long as someone has physical access.

 

True.

 

For example say an employee wants to copy a file but can't in Windows due to a GPO or some security software what do they do? Well a smart person would grab a Linux ISO, make a bootable disk (USB or optical), boot up and copy the file that way.

 

Now obviously you have to calculate the risk of a user doing such a thing. It is obviously quite unlikely and a far bigger worry would be cloud storage or other network based communication options which are far harder to control.

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