Oolite Bulletins

My wife's work USB stick (2GB Integral) has been used (without permission) by somebody else at work. That somebody else is a Mac user.

As this is a multi-OS based forum I thought I'd ask here before I just nuke the stick and start again.

Is there anyway to persuade Ubuntu (9.10) or XP (SP3) or Vista (all of which I have access to) to read this stick, just in case there's something important on it.

I'm tempted just to say "tough" and nuke-from-orbit-it's-the-only-way-to-be-sure, but this way my conscience is clear and I can claim to have done my best.

(The Mac user is no longer around to check the contents of the stick, nor do I know of any other mac users that I have access to, to ask)

TIA

DH

DaddyHoggy wrote:

My wife's work USB stick (2GB Integral) has been used (without permission) by somebody else at work. That somebody else is a Mac user.

(The Mac user is no longer around to check the contents of the stick, nor do I know of any other mac users that I have access to, to ask)

Not good. Did the perpetrator get the sack?

Odd. Typically you’d get it FAT-formatted and use it that way; the Mac won’t go reformatting it just out of spite.

In any case, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HFS_Plus#O ... ng_systems

Just in case it hasn't been formatted by OS X:

When removing USB sticks while still mounted by OS X something usually breaks resulting in errors when replugging it in. I usually did that the first three months on OS X having been used to Windows

Usually Vista then would ask if the USB stick should be repaired and everything will be back to usual.

If it has been formatted by OS X using HFS: see above post

wander up to one of the display puters in Dixons and slip the stick into the port while you pretend to be considering a purchase!

Killer Wolf wrote:

wander up to one of the display puters in Dixons and slip the stick into the port while you pretend to be considering a purchase!

Thanks for the suggestions guys - I will see what happens.

Just to let you know where I'm coming from - the same mac user also had a work issued Laptop (XP) that was completely locked down (same as my wife's) to the point where you can't even right click on the desktop, pull up properties and alter the screensaver time-out, and you get access denied when you try and pull up network connection properties (cmd->ipconfig is your friend ), boot level logon etc, but even with this level of lock-down, the laptop had to be given back to IT after 24 hrs because "it doesn't work anymore" - it was so knackered it had to be rebuilt - which just goes to show you shouldn't dismiss the skill of the completely IT incompetent to think of ways to accidentally hack a machine above and beyond the level of the more astute!

DaddyHoggy wrote:

which just goes to show you shouldn't dismiss the skill of the completely IT incompetent to think of ways to accidentally hack a machine above and beyond the level of the more astute!

Or as my old uni syshack used to often quote - "Never assume malice for something that could equally be attributed to ignorance and/or stupidity..."

Thargoid wrote:

Or as my old uni syshack used to often quote - "Never assume malice for something that could equally be attributed to ignorance and/or stupidity..."

A sagely observation...

DaddyHoggy wrote:

Just to let you know where I'm coming from - the same mac user also had a work issued Laptop (XP) that was completely locked down (same as my wife's) to the point where you can't even right click on the desktop, pull up properties and alter the screensaver time-out, and you get access denied when you try and pull up network connection properties (cmd->ipconfig is your friend ),

If you can get a command prompt up, it wasn't properly locked down..

If you can get a command prompt up, it wasn't properly locked down..

You know, I was surprised too - and yes, you're right of course - perhaps they just relied on the fact that nobody knows how to use DOS commands anymore?

DaddyHoggy wrote:

You know, I was surprised too - and yes, you're right of course - perhaps they just relied on the fact that nobody knows how to use DOS commands anymore?

Nobody except for the bad guys, anyway.. which is precisely why it should have been locked down.. security through obscurity is never wise.

nightmare stuff this "security", innit DH? We've had SecRem put on our machines, can't even use the USB ports now. the DVD drives are disables so we can't burn anything and the emails usually kick out anything over about 3mb or so, so if we want to start hoying data around we need to chop it and zip it.
it is, to use the technical terms, a right fk-on.

Killer Wolf wrote:

nightmare stuff this "security", innit DH? We've had SecRem put on our machines, can't even use the USB ports now. the DVD drives are disables so we can't burn anything and the emails usually kick out anything over about 3mb or so, so if we want to start hoying data around we need to chop it and zip it.

Dunno how they expect us to use our work computers for non-work purposes at all.....

JazHaz wrote:

Killer Wolf wrote:

nightmare stuff this "security", innit DH? We've had SecRem put on our machines, can't even use the USB ports now. the DVD drives are disables so we can't burn anything and the emails usually kick out anything over about 3mb or so, so if we want to start hoying data around we need to chop it and zip it.

Dunno how they expect us to use our work computers for non-work purposes at all.....

I consider myself very fortunate - since for me "work purposes" covers a multitude of sins - gfx demos, cpu/memory thrashing utils, network sniffers, et al - since I can pretty much justify any app I install on the XPS M1730 I'm pretty much left to my own devices, caveat a disclaimer by our Academic IT service providers, that if I do anything malicious and they can prove it, they can fire my ass. (but since this is actually true in my normal T&Cs of employment, I had no qualms about stating so again!)

DaddyHoggy wrote:

JazHaz wrote:

Dunno how they expect us to use our work computers for non-work purposes at all.....

I consider myself very fortunate - since for me "work purposes" covers a multitude of sins - gfx demos, cpu/memory thrashing utils, network sniffers, et al

What is it you actually do?