mub

I think the desktop is evolving, and may one day become effectively irrelevant, But there is still a long way to go before local compute goes away, which means a local OS is still needed.

In the server world, yes. The desktop is the place that needs to be won over.

I dual boot windows and EndeavourOS. Every 6 to 12 months I make a concerted effort to make the switch 100% but it hasn’t worked out yet. So while Linux is great windows is unavoidable. In this use case I suspect managing Windows tools will be simpler, though I agree that effectiveness next to Linux options won’t be equal.

That was kinda my point. Securing a laptop that will have access to data you want to protect from loss is a near bottomless pit of issues. There comes a point you have to do a risk assessment and apply a level of security that meets your legal requirements and contractual obligations. I’m sure this is all doable on Linux as well but the low cost / easily available tools are mostly for Windows.

I suspect that taking the “secured remote session” approach is probably good enough for their needs. It just needs a client app you can trust to respect the security rules they want to enforce (no screen shots, no screen recording, no data transfers for any sort, etc).

OCRing what is on screen is not really stoppable unless you force them to keep their camera on so you can monitor them 24/7. But if you try hard enough there is usually a way around most security measures.

Either way, they need to decide what the risk impact vs likelihood profile is, and what the business can tolerate. They’ll need to discuss it with legal and data protection folks to assess that.

One tip is to embed records and values that look meaningful, but are unique, into the copy of the data given to the specific employee. This can be used to potentially prove that a data breach was a result of something that employee did. We like to put QUID’s as invisible watermarks in document headers. These trigger our DLP systems which is always funny cos its usually an employee who is leaving and wants to keep something. I love those conversions.

“Easy” from the point of view there a lots of off the shelf tools to help you do it that are easy to understand.

This is the only reliable solution. To expand:

1. Provide a Laptop with Windows on it, because that is easier to lockdown.
2. apply desirable OS lock downs like blocking usb ports prevent storage devices, don’t give the user admin rights, etc.
3. Setup a VPN server (openvpn should do) and configure the laptop with a VPN client. Configure the client so it blocks network connections that don’t go via the VPN. If you want to give them internet access you’ll need a proxy and firewall and DLP solution. At this point it all gets very complex and expensive.

The real answer is you are probably screwed without investing a bunch of time, effort, and cost.

You might get away with more basic security measures if the user has very limited IT knowledge.

I suggest getting legal advice before you give the user access to your data in the manner you intend.