USB drive goes missing with Japan-US troop deployment maps

Before you start having a complete panic attack, let us inform you that this whole fiasco actually took place last year, but as these things have a way of going, it's just now coming to light. Reportedly, a 33-year-old captain in the Ground Self-Defense Force ganked a USB flash drive (along with ¥2,000 [$19] and a ¥10,000 [$94] airline coupon) and proceeded to "dump it." Aside from the laughably small amount of cash and prizes this guy accepted, the unfortunate part of all this is what resided on the flash drive: troop deployment maps used in Japan-US military exercises. Worse still, we get the idea that said USB key is still out there somewhere undiscovered (or unrevealed), so if you happen upon one with all sorts of undecipherable schematics on there, now you know what's up.

[Via The Register, image courtesy of University of Texas]

[jbcaro @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:07PM]

Hey, what's this on my desk......uh oh

[Wormbolt @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:53PM]

Is it a Hello Kitty flash drive marked TOP SECRET?

[Chuckles McGee @ Jul 2nd 2008 10:33PM]

D'oh! I knew I shouldn't have reformatted that...

[KAIKAI @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:09PM]

well maybe it was one of them easy to lose flashdrives

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:10PM]

OH god were all going to die. OOOOOOH the humanity. OH Wait.

[Anton @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:12PM]

You Fail, Oh Wait.

[Jeff @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:18PM]

Jap-anUs troop deployments?

[Big Al @ Jul 2nd 2008 10:38PM]

Both countries should receive some therapy from Dr. Tobias Fünke, analrapist (pronounced ɘˡnælrɘˌpɪst)

[aaron @ Jul 2nd 2008 11:24PM]

COME ON!!!

[Funke, Tobias Dr. @ Jul 3rd 2008 1:47AM]

Okay, who'd like a banger in the mouth?

[teej @ Jul 3rd 2008 2:36PM]

i upped you for the SNL reference that no one else seems to get...

[Dolemite @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:20PM]

I am sure the USB drive has already found a safe place where the vast majority of stolen US and Western tech ends up...

Copy Strong!

[thedesolate1 @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:30PM]

I have it! It was made with advance wars DS by the way. Does any evil genius want to buy it from me?

[Marques @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:41PM]

If guys appear at your front door in big SUVs, don't answer it!

[initialxy @ Jul 2nd 2008 10:29PM]

quick, sell it for some big cash before big brothers hunt you down.

[frogger @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:30PM]

can you say ironkey?

[Zoli @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:31PM]

You really think they would have no encryption on a document like that?

[RogueStorm @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:44PM]

Believe it or not, yes, it is highly likely that it would be unencrypted.

[d @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:45PM]

After a year of work, I just cracked the encryption on a file on a random jump drive I found. It seems to be some sort of map. I'm glad I know how to HACK things like this!

[Josh @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:47PM]

yes.

[CBrowne @ Jul 3rd 2008 5:50AM]

Ok, first off - depending on the sensitivity of the data, it most likely WAS encrypted and if it WASN'T then there's nothing to worry about because the data isn't sensitive.

Secondly, cracking a 128-bit encryption algorithm (which is the smallest bit size in use today), depending on the strength of the algorithm of course, varies from being accomplishable by only a handful of the very best minds in the world to damn near impossible. Anything higher than 128-bit (which of course is likely with sensitive information like this) and you have no hope whatsoever.

Luckily for you laymen, your banks use 256-bit (at least) encryption on their secure connections. In other words, if you think you could crack a 256-bit Public Key encryption algorithm then you'd already have done so and earned yourself millions through credit card fraud.

A year of work... please! In computer security, things are either now or never, you would not spend a year trying to break into something worth, I don't know, a few thousand on the black market to some over-keen amateur strategist; where you could earn millions breaking into a bank's unsecured wireless network with the root password on their server set to "s3cur3p4ssw0rd".

My point is that, as in physical burglary, computer crackers will always go for EASY targets that earn them the most per hour's work.

Oh, and to address the real concern - if another country got hold of this information, EVEN if they could break the encryption, it would be of little use to them. The US Army have probably already adjusted their deployment strategy in the situations that are outlined on the maps. Well, one'd hope they have anyway.

[neofolklore @ Jul 3rd 2008 8:06AM]

I cracked my neighbor's 128-bit WEP last night.

[Matt @ Jul 3rd 2008 8:57AM]

I crack 1024bit encryption in my sleep!

[Benson @ Jul 3rd 2008 8:35AM]

@CBrowne:

Well, the best minds or the best computers. (Honestly, some combination is in order.) Do you think whatever intelligence agencies would be interested in this publish it every time they break some cryptography? They do have some of the best minds (who have been at work on all crypto systems they know of for years), and some serious computing power to take it from there.

And they _are_ interested; not because they're naive enough to think nothing changed, but because the more you know of how your enemy plans, the better you can deal with his new plans. Just knowing in more detail what scenarios are being planned for training is highly valuable, even without the specific troop deployments for those situations.

[ShadowKain @ Jul 3rd 2008 9:06AM]

@CBROWNE

"Luckily for you laymen" ... Thanks but I am well aware of 256 bit AES I thank you. Please choose not to bash the entire board next time. That said, good point. If it was sensitive info, it was locked up, UNLESS it was stolen off a secure computer onto an UNSECURE drive. That is a possible scenario as well.

[Weeliano @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:35PM]

That map looks like the deployment of Japanese Imperial Army forces of WWII. Well if THAT's on the USB drive, it definitely cause discomfort among nations formerly occupied by the Japanese during WWII.

[lintsniffer @ Jul 2nd 2008 10:21PM]

You must be an expert on Military History.

Good thing you noticed the November 1941 label in the key.

[MeatPop @ Jul 2nd 2008 10:32PM]

Hence why Vietnam is labeled "French indochina"

[barrywoods @ Jul 2nd 2008 10:43PM]

You mean like the US?

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Jul 3rd 2008 1:41AM]

WWII did not start until December of 1941.

[Steven @ Jul 3rd 2008 3:25AM]

"WWII did not start until December of 1941"

No, it didn't. At least not for shallow USAmericans who think the world ends at the Mexican or Canadian border.

[Rogan josh @ Jul 3rd 2008 3:57AM]

Damn Americans! You only came into the war after Japan bombed your precious ships! The REST OF THE WORLD had actually been at war for two years before you bothered to step in...and then only after your huge armament, ship, aircraft and weapons companies pushed the government enough when they realised how many billions of dollars they could make!!

[teej @ Jul 3rd 2008 4:54PM]

@Steven,

the war actually starts when i install BF1942 and ends when i install COD4.

[Mr Farts @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:39PM]

I already have it with BitTorrent.

[Zane @ Jul 2nd 2008 10:01PM]

LOL.. yep, I'm seeding it right now..

[neofolklore @ Jul 3rd 2008 8:07AM]

I think I see Pirate Bay on that map

[ojx @ Jul 2nd 2008 9:54PM]

gtfo my indonesia!

[go seki @ Jul 2nd 2008 10:01PM]

All UR Base R Belong ...

[iceykitsune @ Jul 3rd 2008 10:31AM]

...to us

[Mr.Ironic @ Jul 3rd 2008 1:56AM]

In this case that actually makes pretty good sense :)

[Slawek @ Jul 2nd 2008 10:01PM]

It was Jack Bauer.

[IndiaTech @ Jul 4th 2008 1:52AM]

I bet it was Chuck Norris...

[Jonathan-DBOSS @ Jul 2nd 2008 10:21PM]

Its stuck on some USB port...

I make me lol sometimes.

[derX @ Jul 2nd 2008 10:27PM]

Ohh, that's clever.

*ranks up*

[TheGasMan @ Jul 2nd 2008 10:31PM]

You're the only one.

[derX @ Jul 2nd 2008 11:12PM]

That "Highly Ranked" says otherwise.

[Mr.Ironic @ Jul 3rd 2008 2:02AM]

Make sure when you dock in that port you don't get a virus.

[teej @ Jul 3rd 2008 4:56PM]

i don't see what you did there :-\

[Crooked Style @ Jul 2nd 2008 10:51PM]

Does the USSR still exists?

[Mountain @ Jul 2nd 2008 11:40PM]

It's like Burn After Reading!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE3TlKzItL8