DoD orders ban on digital storage devices

[unhappycamper]

DoD orders ban on digital storage devices
By William H. McMichael and Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writers
Posted : Thursday Nov 20, 2008 18:05:30 EST

The Defense Department has imposed an immediate ban on the use of thumb drives and other easily portable devices that offer digital memory storage, with some sort of viral intrusion into the military’s worldwide computer networks apparently spurring the move.

The Pentagon would not confirm or deny the ban, although it is spelled out in at least two Air Force directives, one of which sources the order to the Defense Department command that oversees the networks.

Neither directive spells out why the ban was imposed throughout the Defense Department’s Global Information Grid, which includes more than 17,000 local and regional networks and about 7 million individual computers.

But an intrusion or infection is the only explanation, said renowned security expert and author Bruce Schneier.

“Certainly, it’s a propagation problem they’re worried about,” said Schneier, chief security technology officer for BT, a British-based global communications firm. “If it’s preventive, why wasn’t it preventive last week? Something happened, and they’re worried about it propagating.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/military_thumbdrive_ban_112008w/%2e

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Perhaps they caught a spy, or just realized ...

how unsecure they are.

I'm surprised they allowed thumb drives at all.

The Census Bureau used to use thumb drives to back up the thousands of portable computers out in the field, but suddenly ordered them all returned last year, apparently when some disappeared, to avoid possibly sensitive personal information from getting out.

There wasn't much on any individual drive, and it was all encrypted, but they stopped using them anyway. Perhaps the DoD took a bit longer to wake up to the possibility of a thumb drive containing clear-text NATO plans.