Pentagon bans computer flash drives

Fri Nov 21, 2008 12:33 PM EST
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The Pentagon has banned, at least temporarily, the use of external computer flash drives because of a virus threat officials detected on Defense Department networks.

While defense officials would not publicly confirm the ban, messages were sent to department employees informing them of the new restrictions. As part of the ban, the Pentagon was collecting any of the small flash drives that were purchased or provided by the department to workers, according to one message distributed to employees.

Workers are being told there is no guarantee they will ever get the devices back and it is not clear how long the ban will last.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman would provide no details on the virus Friday, but he described it as a "global virus" that has been the subject of public alerts.

"This is not solely a department problem, this is not solely a government problem," Whitman said.

The Pentagon has acknowledged that its vast computer network is scanned or probed by outsiders millions of times each day. Last year a cyber attack forced the Defense Department to take up to 1,500 computers off line.

Officials said then that a penetration of the system was detected, but the attack had no adverse impact on department operations.

However, military leaders have consistently warned of potential threats from a variety of sources including other countries — such as China — along with other self-styled cyber-vigilantes and terrorists.

The issue has also been of concern at the Department of Homeland Security. A September audit by the DHS Inspector General recommended that the agency implement greater procedures to ensure that only authorized computer flash drives or other storage devices can be connected to the network there and that an inventory of those devices be set up.

DHS agreed with the recommendations and said some of that is already being done. DHS also said more software enhancements are in the works that will provide more protection.

___

On the Net:

Defense Department: http://www.defenselink.mil

© 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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{"commentId":4155196,"authorDomain":"rdonaldsnyder"}
R. Donald Snyder

Damn. How are the computer operators going to exchange their porn?

{"commentId":4155196,"threadId":"425094","contentId":"2136019","authorDomain":"rdonaldsnyder"}
  • 1 vote
Reply#1 - Fri Nov 21, 2008 12:47 PM EST
{"commentId":4155578,"authorDomain":"cardinalbiggles2112"}
alphaone

this is not new... when I was there they banned cell phones , pagers , PDA's in sensitive areas. so whats all the fuss?

{"commentId":4155578,"threadId":"425094","contentId":"2136019","authorDomain":"cardinalbiggles2112"}
  • 1 vote
Reply#2 - Fri Nov 21, 2008 1:12 PM EST
{"commentId":4159627,"authorDomain":"BLOG23"}
AMERICANA2

EFFECTIVE way to clean the puters before Obama takes over

{"commentId":4159627,"threadId":"425094","contentId":"2136019","authorDomain":"BLOG23"}
    Reply#3 - Fri Nov 21, 2008 5:14 PM EST
    {"commentId":4182836,"authorDomain":"christopher-calbat"}
    Sgt C USMC

    Alpha,

    When you consider when NMCI came out, ALL of the military units were more or less forced to purchase thumbdrives to allow them to function. (Because NMCI stupidly set their quota systems up based on OU, and not by unit..so you have one OU (say 1stMarDiv is an OU that has better than 20,000 machines) fighting for 500 gb's of file server space. You delete your files to free up some space, someone else takes up that space for themselves. Gets to the point where no one deletes everything) Our thumbdrives were vital for saving and transferring information . 

    Also, because we were told we could use thumbdrives, better than 80 % of the computers don't even have DVD/CDRW burners (because NMCI charges a monthly usage fee for them) and NMCI's exchange server restricts attachments to 10 MB and also won't let any .mdb or .xls (because of the potential for macro viruses) so if we need to transfer one of those files, I have to copy it to my 750mb personal share drive, and then log into the person's computer who needs it, copy it to a folder on the hard drive, and then log off so that they can get to it when they log back on. 

    The banning of removable media has cost the military Millions of dollars in wasted technology (24,000 thumbdrives were confiscated from one regiment sized unit that were paid for by each individual company) , and made it extremely difficult to transmit necessary information.

    That's what all the fuss is about.   

    {"commentId":4182836,"threadId":"425094","contentId":"2136019","authorDomain":"christopher-calbat"}
    • 1 vote
    Reply#4 - Mon Nov 24, 2008 3:38 AM EST
    {"commentId":4189505,"authorDomain":"Rosengarten"}
    John Rosengarten

    A much better solution would be to turn on logging of all thumb drive insertions and removals, and fine any one who spreads a virus.  Also, all file transfers should be logged to determine what was copied in or out.

    Trust, but Verify.

    So how much does this mismanagement cost the taxpayers?

    I hope they at least sold the confiscated drives to recoup some of their (our) money.

    {"commentId":4189505,"threadId":"425094","contentId":"2136019","authorDomain":"Rosengarten"}
    • 1 vote
    Reply#5 - Mon Nov 24, 2008 4:54 PM EST
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