Longhorn block on portable storage
Longhorn block on portable storage
Microsoft's Longhorn is set to address the current security fears over vital information being stolen from big corporations by allowing these businesses to block access to iPods and other small storage devices.
A recent report by Gartner found that portable storage is a threat to corporate data and expose business systems to viruses, although a separate report by META Group stated that it would be difficult to ban these storage devices from the work environment.
Longhorn, the next version of Windows, however, will provide a feature that should make it more difficult for employees to grab sensitive corporate data from business PCs or allow malware to enter local area networks.
Microsoft hopes that a common model for how wired and wireless devices are connected to a PC will be in place by 2006, when Longhorn is expected to be released.
This will mean that wireless printers, networked music players and other wireless devices should be able to connect to a PC just as conveniently as USB drives can today.
Microsoft believes that by providing another option to connecting portable storage devices to PCs, this offers an alternative to the talk of an outright ban on these devices.
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