DoD eases ban on thumb drive use for US military, our enemies rejoice

Betcha didn't know that USB flash drives weren't allowed in the US military. Or maybe you did -- you know, considering that one with Japan-US troop deployment maps went missing in mid-2008. Oops. At any rate, the Department of Defense has reportedly lifted said ban, but as with anything related to The Man, gobs of red tape will be involved. For starters, they won't be reintroduced "wholesale," instead being reserved for "mission essential applications." We're also told that the drives themselves must contain specific security features, and administrators will be able to track the use of 'em from the outset. For those unaware, the ban was originally put into place just over a year ago after virus-laden USB keys disrupted military networks, presumably flashing Blingee'd faces of Kim Jong-il onto CIA surveillance screens. Or not, but that'd be pretty hilarious.

[Pedobear Posted Feb 22nd 2010 1:06AM]

Too much derka derka and not much pew pewing

[freesets Posted Feb 22nd 2010 1:39AM]

@Pedobear reading the source article about what they want for security measures, it sounds a little familiar with some brand that every one knows well for its over controling manners: APPLE (except for those built in antivirus). it wont surprise me if apple would make the new drives to be fail safe at everything. its funny but it reflect a little the reality(you know that if you have an iphone)

[pilotgeg Posted Feb 22nd 2010 11:19AM]

@Pedobear HANS BRIX? Oh no! Oh, hi there, great to see you again Hans!

[monkeyontherun4 Posted Feb 22nd 2010 3:39PM]

@Pedobear

your breakin my balls Brix your breakin my ballls

[KGB Posted Feb 22nd 2010 1:08AM]

"considering that one with Japan-US troop deployment maps went missing in mid-2008".

With all the gobs of money US military has they forgot to buy extra storage space to keep a back up of all their data?? I dont want to know what would happen if some one stole all the recipes for MRE meals.

[Formula7 Posted Feb 22nd 2010 1:54AM]

@KGB erm... I think it's more along the lines of the enemy seeing the maps and knowing where the troops were going, then planning a preemptive strike of sorts. I think the military would be smarter than keeping the primary on a flash drive. At least... as an American, I'd really hope so.

[Jacinth Posted Feb 22nd 2010 2:31AM]

@KGB

MRE's and IMP's suck so hardcore...

[the music major Posted Feb 22nd 2010 1:10AM]

I'm so ronery without my thumb drive

[chispito Posted Feb 22nd 2010 12:06PM]

@the music major

Hans Brix? You're breaking my barrs, Hans, you're breaking my barrs.

[spasewalkr Posted Feb 22nd 2010 1:11AM]

imho, having these restrictions on flash drives in the military kinda makes sense. i mean, i've personally lost about 10 of them, except mine didn't contain military data that could potentially fall into - literally - enemy hands.

having said that, i must also comment on the picture. sushi! fuck yeah!

[tmarks11 Posted Feb 22nd 2010 7:23AM]

@spasewalkr The concern isn't just with data walking away. The concern is that you could introduce a virus into a protected system with a USB thumbdrive.

It is really embarrassing, for example, when your classified computer (which is attached to a protected, classified network gets infected), and spams the entire address book (including such notables as the CNO).

[DJ Posted Feb 22nd 2010 1:11AM]

I work with the DoD and lots of people hate this restriction. Not surprised their loosening it.

[corduroy Posted Feb 22nd 2010 1:28AM]

@DJ
No doubt...
This did not only impact people directly in the military, but other areas as well. It wasn't only flash drives but any USB drive.
What do you do with 4 terabytes of research data that you need to move between computers and use as back ups? After this ban? Turn in all your external drives and hope your drive doesn't crash or you can back up all your data to your 2 gigabytes of space on the network... nevermind that most of the research computers aren't networked for software and security reasons...

[Wiizer Posted Feb 22nd 2010 1:38AM]

@DJ

You work for the DoD, and you don't know when to use "they're"?

Do you work for the U.S. Department of Defense?

[aubreyq Posted Feb 22nd 2010 1:59AM]

@Wiizer: You're kidding, right? The U.S.A. had a President for eight years that wasn't the brightest light on the chandelier.

[KGB Posted Feb 22nd 2010 2:29AM]

@aubreyq

Had? We still have such a president.

[redfish Posted Feb 22nd 2010 7:02AM]

@corduroy The ban didn't apply to all USB external drives. If you truly work for the DoD, and it's that much of an inconvenience, you might want to track down the policy.

[corduroy Posted Feb 22nd 2010 10:14AM]

@redfish
Past tense. The ban took effect several months after I left. I should make it clear that it was under the US Army, so maybe they expanded the device list under the DOD ban. I still speak with my colleagues and the army definitely took all external drives from them. I'll ask them if they've gotten them back yet the next time I see them.

[DJ Posted Feb 22nd 2010 5:00PM]

@corduroy

That's definitely a Army specific thing. For NMCI (I know, I know) USB hard drives are fine unless your command says otherwise. If it spins, it is fine on NMCI (that is the actual line BTW)

[BigDaddyKane Posted Feb 22nd 2010 8:03PM]

@DJ

Same in the Air Force... I was in the middle east when the ban happend. Right away everything USB was blocked except keyboards and mice. Then the stupid submarine cables between Africa and Europe broke and killed everything but .mil sites due to bandwidth... stayed that way until I left.

When I got back to home station, the policy was only flash-based USB devices were not allowed. The "policy" was that you had to have the drive scanned by the admins, but I don't see why the antivirus on the computer wouldn't pick up any viruses.

Yeah, it's a security risk, but not much more than a misplaced CD-R that you have to use currently to transport files/documents between home and work... Things like performance reports and stuff that you don't have time to work on at work...

[formetopoopon Posted Feb 22nd 2010 1:28AM]

Did the USB that went missing in 2008 show where the Japanese have deployed Godzirra?!!!!

[Wiizer Posted Feb 22nd 2010 1:42AM]

@formetopoopon

Are you kidding?

They'd never share that type of intel with us... It was where Mobile Suit Gundam was parked:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/09/video-life-sized-gundams-back-looking-deadlier-than-ever/

[FauxNews Posted Feb 22nd 2010 1:59AM]

Rere iza my dumb dwive!

[versionII Posted Feb 22nd 2010 2:22AM]

someone just hacked the PS3.....FOUR years after it was released. I'm sure some second rate hacker could crack a DoD issue security on a flash drive.

[RoccOn16v Posted Feb 22nd 2010 2:57AM]

I just got back from Iraq in August (US Army) and can tell you personally this reg REALLY stood in the way. All we ended up doing was finding small workarounds (adapt and overcome). Networks were so-so at best, not always available, and there were things we couldn't get onto secure networks (they're completely, physically separate), that we didn't want to ship through insecure networks either because it was still sensitive. Good to see the DoD finally putting trust and responsibility back in its warriors again.

[weeman Posted Feb 22nd 2010 6:16AM]

I'm so ronerly

[Torpedo Vegas Posted Feb 22nd 2010 9:06AM]

I'm not allowed to use flash drives at work either, and I work for neither the DoD or a defense contractor. It's just a good policy to have, because your security is only as good as your policy. As convinient as flash drives are, losing them happens constantly and data that is on them or that can compromise secure systems is not worth the extra usability they provide.

[deciBels Posted Feb 22nd 2010 10:47AM]

I have to face this every day at work. If I want to move a small 5k file from my network capable computer to my project computer, I'm forced to burn a disk and have it destroyed thereafter. HUGE hassle.

[BrownSound Posted Feb 22nd 2010 11:57AM]

lol I find this article really funny Darren Murph huh. nice

[shishi Posted Feb 22nd 2010 1:06PM]

Jesus titty-f*****g Christ!

[Chavez Posted Feb 22nd 2010 1:13PM]

Truecrypt portable + Create Encrypted File Container

[Roger Smith Posted Apr 20th 2010 8:41PM]

iron key?