US Military says no more USB thumbdrives, future leaks stopped...
64 replies, posted
[img]http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/TECH/web/12/10/military.stops.leaks.wired/t1larg.removable.drive.gi.jpg[/img]
[quote](WIRED) -- It's too late to stop WikiLeaks from publishing thousands more classified documents, nabbed from the Pentagon's secret network.
But the U.S. military is telling its troops to stop using CDs, DVDs, thumb drives and every other form of removable media -- or risk a court martial.
Maj. Gen. Richard Webber, commander of Air Force Network Operations, issued the December 3 "Cyber Control Order" -- obtained by Danger Room -- which directs airmen to "immediately cease use of removable media on all systems, servers, and stand alone machines residing on SIPRNET," the Defense Department's secret network.
Similar directives have gone out to the military's other branches.
[url=http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/12/10/military.stops.leaks.wired/index.html?hpt=Sbin](more)[/url][/quote]
[url]http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/12/10/military.stops.leaks.wired/index.html?hpt=Sbin[/url]
A court martial for something that some might have on their keychain? Harsh, considering that any computer than connects to SIPRNET shouldn't have USB, CD or any other external medium access.
I think it's only for using removable media on the actual military intelligence network thing. And they tried this a couple years ago when a bug got onto the system via usb.
inb4 Australia bans flash drives
[QUOTE=wuzzimu;26669300]I think it's only for using removable media on the actual military intelligence network thing.[/QUOTE]
It says that the directive went out to other branches, so I'm guessing that it was not restrictive to the ones that deal with SIPRNET.
[QUOTE=wuzzimu;26669300]I think it's only for using removable media on the actual military intelligence network thing. And they tried this a couple years ago when a bug got onto the system via usb.[/QUOTE]
Yup, I was in Afghanistan when that happened. Shit sucked, bad.
So... Accourding to them... The biggest flaw in the US Intelligence network is USB flashdrives?
Why do I get the feeling that calling it "intelligence" is meant to be ironic?
Love how they blurred the USB Drive while it clearly is saying: 'USB Drive' on it.
Two letters: C D
[QUOTE=Zenreon117;26669461]Two letters: C D[/QUOTE]
3 words: Read, the and article
Cellphones anyone...?
Email files to yourself
open at home :smug:
Back to the old pen 'n paper.
[editline]13th December 2010[/editline]
[QUOTE=Randy;26669440]Love how they blurred the USB Drive while it clearly is saying: 'USB Drive' on it.[/QUOTE]
Nope. It says "USB DRIVE™".
I don't blame them, many companies that deal with high-risk or secret things ban the use of portable writable media to minimize leak risk. The Military doing that is totally reasonable.
[QUOTE=Xen Tricks;26669810]I don't blame them, many companies that deal with high-risk or secret things ban the use of portable writable media to minimize leak risk. The Military doing that is totally reasonable.[/QUOTE]
It's actually fairly unreasonable, at least the court martial part is. RE: when dealing with documents marked Confidential, Secret and Top Secret, any information system that has access to such a network should not have any method to remove data. I.e. no USB ports or CD burners. There are systems out there to ensure machines cannot be opened and then used, etc.
[QUOTE=DogGunn;26669865]It's actually fairly unreasonable, at least the court martial part is. RE: when dealing with documents marked Confidential, Secret and Top Secret, any information system that has access to such a network should not have any method to remove data. I.e. no USB ports or CD burners. There are systems out there to ensure machines cannot be opened and then used, etc.[/QUOTE]
I doubt you would get thrown in military prison for a year or something for this, the threat of punishment is just to further discourage use of them. And it's much easier and cost effective to just ban the media than it would be to go in and disable use of USB in every system on the secret network, or to revamp the system. It's not like they're banning use of such things altogether, just in the use of this specific network.
Dumb fuckers, just lease dell computers that have no CD drives or USB drives...
[QUOTE=Xen Tricks;26669902]I doubt you would get thrown in military prison for a year or something for this, the threat of punishment is just to further discourage use of them. And it's much easier and cost effective to just ban the media than it would be to go in and disable use of USB in every system on the secret network, or to revamp the system. It's not like they're banning use of such things altogether, just in the use of this specific network.[/QUOTE]
No cost in money is too great now for the US to actually work on securing their secure system. A cost benefit analysis should've been done to determine what damage could be done if such top secret material had been leaked, as it has.
This was bound to happen really, with such poor security.
[QUOTE=DogGunn;26669969]No cost in money is too great now for the US to actually work on securing their secure system. A cost benefit analysis should've been done to determine what damage could be done if such top secret material had been leaked, as it has.
This was bound to happen really, with such poor security.[/QUOTE]
I'm not saying they shouldn't aim to be more secure in their systems, but as an immediate mostly effective solution, this works out well. Ban the main source of information leakage and then work to cut off the possibility of it entirely.
[QUOTE=DogGunn;26669865]It's actually fairly unreasonable, at least the court martial part is. RE: when dealing with documents marked Confidential, Secret and Top Secret, [b]any information system that has access to such a network should not have any method to remove data. I.e. no USB ports or CD burners.[/b] There are systems out there to ensure machines cannot be opened and then used, etc.[/QUOTE]
Uh this is basically impossible. If a computer has classified/secret material it is kept in a secure area where cellphones, USB drives, PDAs etc are not allowed. Trying to stop people from connecting USB devices and whatnot would be a huge waste of time and a nuisance if the system ever went down for whatever reason. I work with DND and by far the easiest way to keep people from getting data they shouldn't be seeing is screening who can be a secure area and who can't and supplying only authorized USB drives that never leave the building. Computers need ways to transfer and store data externally, banning them is counterproductive and its not the first time it has been brought up (not to mention it has failed miserably previous times because nobody could get anything done).
why not just provide pre-authorized ones and limit/screen the personnel allowed access to them
[editline]13th December 2010[/editline]
fuckin a m2k3
[QUOTE=Kalibos;26671024]why not just provide pre-authorized ones and limit/screen the personnel allowed access to them
[editline]13th December 2010[/editline]
fuckin a m2k3[/QUOTE]
Because that would make sense.
Get one of those flashdrives that looks like a pen or disguised as something else, i doubt they will inspect every pen to see if you can pop the top and reveal the USB thingy.
[QUOTE=Laserbeams;26670480]Why does that laptop have a cyrillic keyboard ?[/QUOTE]
Looks like we've been infiltrated by commies.
[QUOTE=rampageturke 2;26669657]Email files to yourself
open at home :smug:[/QUOTE]
Because the US military totally don't log emails.
[QUOTE=Dr. Fishtastic;26670022][img_thumb]http://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/additional/large/ironkey_capoff.jpg[/img_thumb]
:smug:[/QUOTE]
Exactly.
Edit: Actually, no. If you are the leak, it wouldn't matter if you had a high security USB drive as you would still be able to unlock it.
Shit, you know, this will make moving files around annoyingly hard for them. That's a good point M2k3.
Its a much needed change anyway regardless of Wikileaks.
Ok ill just bring in a DVD in since CD is a outdated format
there are others ways to get files...
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