Warning: iPods Prohibited on Premises! It was only a matter of time before portable music players were recognized for what they are - giant hard drives able to suck up sensitive data. "It's pretty cool that the average American can own a 20-Gbyte storage device," says security expert Abe Usher, "but it's not necessary to be productive in the workplace." On his blog in June, Usher posted the software he wrote to "pod slurp" 62 Mbytes of files from his computer in little more than three minutes with an iPod and a boot CD. The UK Ministry of Defense has placed restrictions on possession of MP3 players on its premises, and Boeing doesn't allow 'em (or flash memory drives or phonecams) into some of its US facilities.
Companies and bureaucrats aren't the only ones worried. Ever since the Walkman, the New York City Department of Education has banned music players from public schools - though not for security reasons. It cited the fear that listening to tunes in class makes it hard to hear the teacher (what?). And a school in Sydney nixed portable electronics on the grounds that students were becoming isolated from one another and the world. Well, duh. That's the whole point.
- Ethan Todras-Whitehill
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Check Your iPod at the Door
