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employees can't send our proprietary plans off-site?" appears to be "Do you search your employees at the exit for floppies and magnetic tapes?"
I see your point.
Encryption being available to employees can make industrial espionage easier only if it opens a new channel (or clears an insecure channel) for bad apple employees or contractors to get their stolen memos off site. An
Encryption could be used as a secure means of storage of accumulated material (on site) until a security gap can be found, though. And if anyone does any snooping, they can't see through the encryption to see if it's really company secrets, thus protecting the spy.
(unless higher bandwidth per incident channels like DAT or 8mm tapes risk exposure).
Again, encryption is sort of a nice safety net. They can catch you with the tape, but they've only got you on suspicion of espionage, and the evidence is encrypted.
fill them with garbage. It is indeed a security risk, but the sabotage can more easily be performed without strong encryption.
I was thinking more about data being held hostage. Encryption offers the possibility of restoring the information... no doubt for a price of some sort. Few companies would like to admit to being blackmailed in this fashion. Sabotage, on the other hand, is much less flexible, and hence would be the practice of comparative amateurs. If you destroy everything, and get caught, what do you have to bargain with? Mark ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mark Carter carterm@spartan.ac.brocku.ca PGP key available by finger. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6 iQCVAgUBLgTjWmcmVnbEt/gBAQEbxQP+JNs6QvvpMft3FH7DeEUFvsz37lcLAn9d KzKFHdGMqA0GTqdQLTaEdCBaZzXWMvCW99VcA63l9BFqwEbV1iNw0qs/dWUQseyR JR0bc/RWqhW7E20NSTXeNpRbxTD9oRoUz1qkV4Z482SWGPEjuIB8Ri+/gJLID9El rNaKKEJluoE= =ewDq -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----