I’ve found out today about a new online services offered for free by GFI Software that allows you to check what devices are or have been connected to computers on your network and by whom. Using this diagnostic tool, you can identify those areas where the use of portable storage devices could pose a risk to the integrity of the company’s systems and data.

The tool is called EndPointScan and all you need to do is install the ActiveX control when prompted and run the scan. I gave it a test run and I chose to scan the local computer.At the time of the scan I had my I-Stick2 USB thumbdrive connected and I was quite surprised to see a list of other removable USB devices I used in the past.

The scan was pretty fast (a couple of seconds) and it produced a detailed report containing the device list and the device threat level which could be easily confronted against the company’s AUP (Acceptable Use Policy)

The first use of this tool that comes into my mind is the mitigation of the data leakage risks associated with the uncontrolled use of portable / removable storage devices which I ranked as #9 on my list of risks on  Why internal threats and vulnerabilities became hot issues

So, if you know that a 60GB cute iPod can turn into a lethal weapon by the sheer volume of classified data it can store, EndPointScan is the tool for you. Needless to say that using this scanner will render you unpopular in 2 seconds but hey, you can always use a random quote from the  management "quote" generator such as : we need to expedite user-centric technologies.

EndPointScan is available for free at http://www.endpointscan.com/

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