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Can laptop users' offline activities be monitored?

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Can laptop users' offline activities be monitored?

Mike Chapple, Enterprise Compliance

I am an information security consultant interested in monitoring laptop users' activities when they are working offlline. Is there a tool that I can use to push all logs on a server while a user is working from home? We have banned USB sticks in our office and monitored all email activity, but we have no control, for example, if a person transfers a file from his laptop to a USB stick from home. We want each user's actions logged on a server when that person comes to the office and connects to our LAN.

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This is a tough issue! If you want to log access, you should consider deploying a configuration management product throughout your enterprise. However, it sounds like you're simply looking for a solution that allows you to enforce your "no USB devices" policy. Fortunately, Windows XP SP2 provides a direct way to solve this problem through a registry setting. You need to add a DWORD value called WriteProtect to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlStorageDevicePolicies and set the value to 1. (Note: If you don't understand that, seek assistance from someone familiar with editing the Windows Registry. Editing the registry improperly can seriously damage your operating system).

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