RSSGoogle Desktop May Pose Security Risk
By Ed Oswald | Published February 21, 2006, 11:43 AM
Google admitted Monday that a security risk exists within the "Search Across Computers" feature in Google Desktop 3 for enterprise users, however it argued the function posed as much of a security risk as e-mail does.
The issue surrounds the way Google caches data on a remote server before sending it to the user's shared computers. In many enterprise environments, such an action would be considered an unacceptable security risk.
The issue was first raised by research firm Gartner, wich warned its clients to only use the version of Google Desktop for Enterprise. Doing so would allow an IT administrator to globally disable the Search Across Computers feature.
Gartner told clients that they "must also evaluate what they are allowing to be indexed, and whether they are comfortable that they can adequately bar the sharing of data with Google's servers."
Google seemed to agree, echoing Gartner's sentiments in public comments on the matter.
It appears as if Google is not going to make any changes in the program, and the company suggests it does not see the issue as a flaw. It should be noted that during transmission, and while archived on Google servers, the information is encrypted.
In any case, Gartner recommends the "immediate disable" of the shared search feature in order to prevent any breach of sensitive data.
DO I have to keep saying it?
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Google is the Devil!
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http://www.userfriendly.org/ read the archives for the last two weeks *grin*.
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Google Desktop-- an application that caches all your data-- may pose a security risk.... yeah, gee, there's a shocker.
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and how else would you want it to search trough if not by cacheing your data ???
DUUUUUUHH !!!
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Oh I dunno, I disable Fast Indexing service on XP, and have just used Windows File Search for years and years... oh yeah, and I take personal responsibility for my own file management so I always know what I call things and where I put them...
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You might love Locate then: http://locate32.webhop.org/
It builds an index of FILENAMES on all accessible drives. It then provides instant searching - The results from 400,000 filenames pop right up.
Also, you control when it runs and when it doesn't; though I keep it on all the time and have it replace my F3 search.
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