USB in laptops

[zittauch]

Is it possible to disable the USB ports in a laptop, so that material cannot be copied from the laptop to a USB stick.

[Buenchico]

Method 1 (Drastic!):
Fill the USB ports with superglue or epoxy resin!

Method 2 (Requiring registry changes - Only for those who really know what they're doing!):
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823732

Method 3 (Requiring you to pay for security software):
http://www.devicelock.com/

Far simpler (1):
Encrypt the data on the laptop so that copying it will be completely pointless.

or (2):
Ensure that you've got good password protection on the laptop, so that it can't be used by anyone without proper authorisation.

Chris

[ChuckFickens]

method 4 (and this one can be set on a per user basis)

change the file permissions on usbstor.inf and usbstor.pnf

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823732

[AlBags]

What's wrong with disabling the ports in Device Manager then?

Depends on what level of security you want.
You can prevent USB devices being recognised, so they can't run.