George Ou has a great article on Windows Vista bugs at Tech Republic (www.techrepublic.com).

Check out his Long list of Vista bugs that will keep me off Vista

“One of the favorite enterprise features of Microsoft® Windows Vista™, USB device installations, gets even better in RC1. ”

So starts the USB Blocking in Release Candidate 1 posts to the Windows Vista Security blog on Microsoft Developers Network.

As much as I hate to side with the IT guys on this one, it is just a necessary requirement in today’s corporate world.

First, there were the horror stories of Social Engineering attacks. Vandals or corporate espionage types “lose” flash drives in a company’s parking lot. The employee who finds it naturally plugs it into his(or her) computer. And, the device auto-installs the spy software.

Or, it might be an inside job… Do you have any idea just how much confidential corporate information you can fit on a 4GB flash drive? Whether its financial projections, personnel data, operations data or customer lists, the disclosure to the public or to a competitor could be critical.

We’ve heard the stories of lost or stolen hard drives. With the same type of data on a flash drive, because someone wanted to work on the project at home, it’s easy to misplace that little flash drive. Or, to get it stolen.
As of Vista RC1, Vista group administrators have a new ability.

They can create a group policy that turns off the ability to use USB flash drives — or other specific types of devices — or any USB devices.

I think this one will be welcome. It can also be a big motivator in getting corporate customers to shift to Windows Vista.