Google Desktop May Pose Security Risk

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.