bspring (9/18/2013)
I work in IT at an USAF airbase and we are NOT allowed to connect anything to the USB ports except specific pieces of government HD's and floppies. Yes floppy drives. I heard in a new report on NPR that the NSA had no such restriction. But now they are considering it.
Is that enforced with a group policy, or just instructions to users? If it's not enforced with group policy, there's still a gaping hole and only the appearance of control. My organization has a group policy on all machines, with a few controlled exceptions, that disallow installation of any USB mass storage device, and disable the internal DVD drive.
I think that's part of the future of system administration - how do you minimize the risks and still allow the access that's needed for someone to do their job.