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]
posted Jul 2nd 2008 9:03PM
Hey, what's this on my desk......uh oh
Is it a Hello Kitty flash drive marked TOP SECRET?
D'oh! I knew I shouldn't have reformatted that...
well maybe it was one of them easy to lose flashdrives
OH god were all going to die. OOOOOOH the humanity. OH Wait.
You Fail, Oh Wait.
Jap-anUs troop deployments?
Both countries should receive some therapy from Dr. Tobias Fünke, analrapist (pronounced ɘˡnælrɘˌpɪst)
COME ON!!!
Okay, who'd like a banger in the mouth?
i upped you for the SNL reference that no one else seems to get...
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!
I have it! It was made with advance wars DS by the way. Does any evil genius want to buy it from me?
If guys appear at your front door in big SUVs, don't answer it!
quick, sell it for some big cash before big brothers hunt you down.
can you say ironkey?
You really think they would have no encryption on a document like that?
Believe it or not, yes, it is highly likely that it would be unencrypted.
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!
yes.
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.
I cracked my neighbor's 128-bit WEP last night.
I crack 1024bit encryption in my sleep!
@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.
@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.
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.
You must be an expert on Military History.
Good thing you noticed the November 1941 label in the key.
Hence why Vietnam is labeled "French indochina"
You mean like the US?
WWII did not start until December of 1941.
"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.
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!!
@Steven,
the war actually starts when i install BF1942 and ends when i install COD4.
I already have it with BitTorrent.
LOL.. yep, I'm seeding it right now..
I think I see Pirate Bay on that map
gtfo my indonesia!
All UR Base R Belong ...
...to us
In this case that actually makes pretty good sense :)
It was Jack Bauer.
I bet it was Chuck Norris...
Its stuck on some USB port...
I make me lol sometimes.
Ohh, that's clever.
*ranks up*
You're the only one.
That "Highly Ranked" says otherwise.
Make sure when you dock in that port you don't get a virus.
i don't see what you did there :-\
Does the USSR still exists?
It's like Burn After Reading!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE3TlKzItL8
Disinformation to cover the real purpose of infiltrating a foreign governments computer net with a killer virus.
This is a probably a Chinese operation. They are active with espionage even in Japan.
According to the director of the CIA, "they are eating our lunch".
Our excessive openness and political correctness may result in a stunning surprise once China decides to stop being nice.
And Australia's like "WTF mate?"
no one else gets this?
+1
lol
hoookay soo
You know those lanyard things that always come with them and how stupid the idea is in your head when you picture yourself wearing your USB drive around your neck? Might now have been a bad idea here...
so it has the earth federation's secret plans for the "v project?" guy sold out to zeon. if its not nazis, its space nazis.
Though shit!!!