Force USB encryption Windows and Mac
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The entire question originated from your lack of a control plan to ensure that USB storage is encrypted. Had you simply stated in your policy that USB storage is encrypted at the time of purchase and device usage is strictly controlled to trusted people you wouldn't be in this predicament of attempting to find some magical good ransomware that can tell when something isn't encrypted, and kindly asks you if you wish to encrypt the USB storage. . .
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@Dashrender said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
This is my initial reaction too.. but I'm trying to turn over a new leaf, and say 'yes.' which in this case starts with researching possible solutions.
Why not ask them what their other clients are using. I bet that you are the first and they are trying to trick you into having a solution that doesn't exist.
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@DustinB3403 said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
The entire question originated from your lack of a control plan to ensure that USB storage is encrypted. Had you simply stated in your policy that USB storage is encrypted at the time of purchase and device usage is strictly controlled to trusted people you wouldn't be in this predicament of attempting to find some magical good ransomware that can tell when something isn't encrypted, and kindly asks you if you wish to encrypt the USB storage. . .
and you are under some delusion that people live to only follow the rules and would never just go to the store (or hell, pickup a USB stick in the parking lot) and just simply plug it into their computer.
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@scottalanmiller said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
@Dashrender said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
This is my initial reaction too.. but I'm trying to turn over a new leaf, and say 'yes.' which in this case starts with researching possible solutions.
Why not ask them what their other clients are using. I bet that you are the first and they are trying to trick you into having a solution that doesn't exist.
I'm waiting for just that reply already.
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@DustinB3403 said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
@Dashrender said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
@DustinB3403 said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
You would have no way to do this.
You can setup encrypted volumes on USB drives you control, but there would be know way to do this for every USB drive.
This is my initial reaction too.. but I'm trying to turn over a new leaf, and say 'yes.' which in this case starts with researching possible solutions.
I'm wondering if there is some type of MDM/end user device management (something like Intune).
How would it encrypt the drive? That would mean it would realistically ransomware people's devices if they mistakenly plug a personal USB into a work computer.
I think the only option is blocking unencrypted drives. But it wouldn't be encrypted versus not, it would be encrypted by a certain tool or not. That's about the only possible solution.
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@Dashrender said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
Insert the drive, it's scanned to see if it's encrypted
This is where it would fail at the high level. A computer can tell if something is encrypted with a specific tool or two if it reports that. But can't tell in the general sense.
@Dashrender said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
Do you want to encrypt this drive? (if yes, all data currently on this device will be lost).
It would be more like "would you like to reformat this drive", because it's not encrypting, just erasing.
@Dashrender said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
the bigger issue I see is - how will it KNOW it's encrypted? There are tons of different types of encryption. It's unlikely that any solution would know them all.
Exactly. Can only check for one type.
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@Dashrender said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
and you are under some delusion that people live to only follow the rules and would never just go to the store (or hell, pickup a USB stick in the parking lot) and just simply plug it into their computer.
I'm not under any delusion, I realize this can and does happen all of the time, but you have a policy in place and a means of slapping someone on the wrist if they do something they aren't supposed to.
@Dashrender said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
I'm waiting for just that reply already.
They have no such workable solution, as @scottalanmiller they are likely trying to see if you can show them some magical unicorn software that can tell the difference between encrypted zeros and ones and non-encrypted zeros and ones.
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The Sofos solution seems nice - it simply encrypts all files to the user's key by default, regardless of where the user is saving it.
That should solve the issue - the main thing the insurance company is trying to protect is any data being copied from the computer would be encrypted on the removable media.
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@Dashrender said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
Here is the statement from the insurance company, perhaps I'm reading it wrong.
Simply say "technical controls are not possible for all HR policies". That simple.
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@Dashrender said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
@DustinB3403 said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
You need to update your policy that any device that isnt encrypted cannot be used on company provided devices without first having an encrypted volume created on it this would fix your policy issue and address the concern of non-encrypted volumes being used on company devices
that is not a technical safeguard.. that's only a policy based one.. and clearly not good enough according to what the request has stated.
If that were true, imagine how many HR policies don't have technical safeguards. ALmost all, I would assume.
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Do you have a business need to allow USB drives to be plugged in? It seems simplest to just deny them entirely. There are so many ways of exchanging information that allowing USB drives is just a security vulnerability without much return.
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@Dashrender said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
Now having an online chat with Sophos... and he's edging me toward - you only need encrypted USB?
which of course leads me to - does the insurance company expect me to be running full disk encryption everywhere else ( EVERYWHERE else?) but simply not asking me about it.. seems like a huge gap...
I hesitate asking for fear that they will suddenly require it, while right not I consider it NOT required.
They are responding to your policy statement, not claiming a need. They are stating that "because you have a policy" that "you should enforce it". Remove the policy, remove the problem.
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@scottalanmiller said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
@Dashrender said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
@DustinB3403 said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
You need to update your policy that any device that isnt encrypted cannot be used on company provided devices without first having an encrypted volume created on it this would fix your policy issue and address the concern of non-encrypted volumes being used on company devices
that is not a technical safeguard.. that's only a policy based one.. and clearly not good enough according to what the request has stated.
If that were true, imagine how many HR policies don't have technical safeguards. ALmost all, I would assume.
Of course, many can't have technical safeguards, and they aren't asking about those.. they are asking about this very specific one.
But - we might as well table this until I get a reply from them.
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@DustinB3403 said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
If you own the devices, just start encrypting them when you first get them in office, create your policy on that process.
I agree. Encryption is up to IT, not the end user. Company owned is up to the end user. They won't ask for a technical safeguard that the company owns the USB sticks. So problem solved.
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@Dashrender said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
@DustinB3403 said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
@JaredBusch said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
Bit Locker can do it natively.
So is there a GPO (local or AD whatever) that requires bitllocker on USB drives?
That's Windows only and wouldn't work for the second half of the question.
yep.
Though, I suppose if required, I could have two solutions.
Not really, not without an additional, very difficult problem of ensuring the sticks don't cross contaminate.
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@Dashrender said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
@DustinB3403 said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
The entire question originated from your lack of a control plan to ensure that USB storage is encrypted. Had you simply stated in your policy that USB storage is encrypted at the time of purchase and device usage is strictly controlled to trusted people you wouldn't be in this predicament of attempting to find some magical good ransomware that can tell when something isn't encrypted, and kindly asks you if you wish to encrypt the USB storage. . .
and you are under some delusion that people live to only follow the rules and would never just go to the store (or hell, pickup a USB stick in the parking lot) and just simply plug it into their computer.
Why do you feel that way? He said nothing of the sort.
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@Dashrender said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
@scottalanmiller said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
@Dashrender said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
This is my initial reaction too.. but I'm trying to turn over a new leaf, and say 'yes.' which in this case starts with researching possible solutions.
Why not ask them what their other clients are using. I bet that you are the first and they are trying to trick you into having a solution that doesn't exist.
I'm waiting for just that reply already.
Either they won't have one, I guarantee, or they will come back with something like Dustin's example of human-based controls.
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@DustinB3403 said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
I'm not under any delusion, I realize this can and does happen all of the time,
Because ALL solutions have work arounds. No "controls" are perfect. Having a control never implies that no workaround exists. In fact, most controls that companies use actually do quite little.
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@Dashrender said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
The Sofos solution seems nice - it simply encrypts all files to the user's key by default, regardless of where the user is saving i
That's not the same as the drive being encrypted and from a wording standpoint, would not satisfy your policy nor the insurance question. But is a good security solution. But if you allow that, you violate your own policy and that could cause a lot of problems.
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@scottalanmiller said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
@Dashrender said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
@scottalanmiller said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
@Dashrender said in Force USB encryption Windows and Mac:
This is my initial reaction too.. but I'm trying to turn over a new leaf, and say 'yes.' which in this case starts with researching possible solutions.
Why not ask them what their other clients are using. I bet that you are the first and they are trying to trick you into having a solution that doesn't exist.
I'm waiting for just that reply already.
Either they won't have one, I guarantee, or they will come back with something like Dustin's example of human-based controls.
Human based controls aren't technical.
And while we haven't given them our current policy - i.e. so they couldn't have read it and said - it's not good enough... we just told them, we have a company policy... so if company policy was good enough - I would expect them to say - hey, before we sign off on that company policy, we need to see what it says.. then I would agree that going Dustin's route would make sense.
