Military Threatens To Court Martial Anyone Using USB Drives Or Other Removable Media

Apparently, one strategy the military is taking in a weak attempt to prevent a future State Department cable leaks, like the one currently going on, is to ban all forms of removable media and to threaten to court martial anyone caught using USB keys or CD-Rs on machines connected to SIPRNET. Apparently this is kind of frustrating for many in the military:

One military source, who works on these networks, says it will make the job harder; classified computers are often disconnected from the network, or are in low-bandwidth areas. A DVD or a thumb drive is often the easiest way to get information from one machine to the next. "They were asking us to build homes before," the source says. "Now they?re taking away our hammers."

The thing is, just like TSA patdowns, this is targeting the last leak, rather than the next leak. If someone wants to leak the content, they'll figure out a way to do so, even if they can't stick a USB key into a computer.

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Source: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101209/17522012223/military-threatens-to-court-martial-anyone-using-usb-drives-other-removable-media.shtml

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