Microsoft hands out 'private' folders

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tic: your suggestion is noted

When MS does something, it gets noticed. I'd be willing to bet that this will end up getting used inappropriately by some users, users who would never have sought out such functionality on their own, but when MS offered it to them, they took them up on it.

What you seem to be advocating here (or defending) is "security through obscurity". As long as the users don't know that software exists and is downloadable from the Internet, they won't even think of installing it.

Isn't it better to have a policy in place (remember, we are talking about the enterprise, not the home) that restricts what users are allowed to install? That way, you aren't relying on the ignorance of your users (and you would have to be mighty ignorant not to know that software is downloadable). Either you don't restrict what your employees install (in which case this utility isn't a big deal) or you do (in which case this utility isn't a big deal).

Really, it's a question of visibility.

I would actually suggest that something like Winzip (which also allows you to password protect files) is far more visible than "Private Folder 1.0", something that I would never have come across had I not read it here.

More folks will see it, more will use it, some correctly, some problematically.

Chances are that if an employee is handling corporate data that is sensitive in nature, the IT department will have a solution in place to handle those sensitive files (such as [url=http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/cryptfs.mspx] EFS[/url]). Such employees will not use this tool to protect sensitive corporate data so this utility isn't a big deal.

If an employee is trying to protect personal data at work, well... I just can't feel too sorry for them if they use it improperly and lose their personal data. Again, this isn't a big deal (at least not to the IT department!).

Personally, I'd never complain about gaining new and potentially useful functionality, but I'm speaking from the point of view of an end user, and not an administrator who has to deal with all of the knuckleheads out there.

Agreed. My only point is that an administrator who is concerned about dealing with knuckleheads is tremendously unwise to rely on "visibility" (or lack thereof) to protect their end users' desktops.

Posted by: NonZealot   Posted on: 07/10/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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