Military Secrets for Sale on Stolen USB Drives

nTrfAce writes "Per a BBC Article, "US forces in Afghanistan are checking reports that stolen computer hardware containing military secrets is being sold at a market beside a big US base. Shopkeepers at a market next to Bagram base, outside Kabul, have been selling memory drives stolen from the facility, the Los Angeles Times newspaper says.""

Comments

Strong encryption

[VincenzoRomano]

I hope that those soldiers were using strong encryption for file systems.
I hope that those soldiers were not storing sensible data on those drives.
I hope that those soldiers were not storing weird photos involving prisoners ...
Real world tends to be different from hopes!

Re:Strong encryption

[meringuoid]

I hope that those soldiers were not storing weird photos involving prisoners ...

If soldiers have been abusing prisoners, I'd prefer them to photograph themselves doing it and then store those photographs on disks which are later stolen and leaked to the press.

Otherwise, how will we ever know what our armed representatives abroad are doing in our names?

Re:Strong encryption

[chrismcdirty]

I really doubt that most of them tell the actual truth. Like in America, their job is to sell the news. Most of the time, they put a spin on it to please their citizens, or to upset their citizens. If the citizens hate Americans, they'd likely make their news biased against America.

For example, would you have me read British news concerning America? Iranian? French? Libyan? German? How am I, the ignorant American, supposed to know which ones are truly impartial, and which ones are putting their Anti-/Pro-American spin on the news, just like the news companies here in America?

Re:Strong encryption

[RandoX]

"The truth" is subjective.

Re:Strong encryption

[pianophile]

You voted for Bush - twice.

I didn't, and neither did approximately half of US voters.

How is the military carrying out his commands not representative of you? You don't get off that easily.

I hope that someday you are personally blamed for the actions of your government, too, you jerk.

Why?

[bl00d6789]

Let me be the first to ask: Why the hell is the military storing sensitive data on USB drives, which are prone to both theft and failure?

Re:Why?

[michaelhood]

Policy and practice are often quite distant from each other in reality. Especially in government; military or otherwise.

Re:Why?

[1u3hr]

Let me be the first to ask: Why the hell is the military storing sensitive data on USB drives, which are prone to both theft and failure?

Most likely it's just sneakernet; moving files from laptop to PC etc. After transferring the files they forget to wipe the USB stick. The army will probably try to stop this by mandating it not be done. Which will work for a while till troops rotate and a new batch come in. The only real solution is to physically disable USB ports, which would be difficult with the number of legitimate USB peripherals now. Otherwise everything needs to be transparently encrypted. The military fears losing access to critical data in battle more than possible security breaches though.

Re:Why?

[Foobar of Borg]

Been hitting the Kool-Aid pretty hard, haven't you? I bet you believe that we actually found the WMDs, too!

why/when.

[rew]

Why and when are rules ignored?

Here in the Netherlands, there has been a series of cases where sensitive information has leaked through stolen/lost hardware, and every time some official was breaking the rules.

The rules were unworkable: DO NOT TAKE YOUR WORK HOME.

So, no reading of a report on the train, no after-dinner report writing. Nothing. Ambitious people break the rules to perform better. So they take stuff home anyway. As long as the hardware doesn't get stolen, nothing is noticed. Big publicity when sensitive information makes it to the press.

But if they were to start policing the policy, a lot of the ambitious people would eventually give in to the rules, and simply watch tv after dinner, and read the newspaper on the train. Results? Productivity drop.

Re:why/when.

[Darren.Moffat]

"Results? Productivity drop."

I personally disagree, in my experience you actually in the longer term get a productivity increase. Why ? because the people are more relaxed and more refreshed with a balanced lifestyle that isn't all "work work work". People who constantly take work home are marters to the job or just really bad at planning.

Amusing comment in _Slate_

[Black Parrot]

"Intelligence seems to be one of the few things the military doesn't overpay for - one Afghan spying on al Qaeda gets $15 for every successful mission."

Re:Amusing comment in _Slate_

[NeoSkandranon]

But how far does $15 go in Kabul?

Far enough to make it worth the informant's while I'd guess.

SSNs

[Anonymous Coward]

SSN should stand for Supposedly Secret Number.

Everybody knows your SSN. Every employer you've had, every school you've been to, everybody you've applied for credit from, every company that's provided a service like long distance to you. Also, every firm any of those organizations have contracted out their data handling to.

Fewer people know what shoe size you wear.

The hardware was STOLEN

[Anonymous Coward]

The report states the hardware was "stolen" and I'm sure many Afgans don't read English otherwise they would do more with what they've stolen.

Certain government organisations have really bad networks and capacities to move documents from one person's PC/laptop to another which is why people inside use USB keys.

Also when you are at certain level you are allowed to take your work home or work from home, and some of the laptops given out to such employees leave a lot to be desired in performance which is why people email documents to themselves or copy files to USB keys.

A blind eye is turned to all this unless of course something gets lost and leaked to the papers.

Re:Missing Classified Hard Drives

[Anonymous Coward]

You normally don't use USB drives as boot drives.

Mod Proust Funny

[magetoo]

I wish I had literature points right now...

We just assume they are secrects

[Thecarpe]

We just assume the information is some military secret. There is a distict possibility that the information on those drives is nothing more than family pictures or some other relatively mundane piece of information. I have friends in the FBI who have thumb drives and I just assume that the information on them is classified, but in truth, I know that it is probably a collection of pictures of them at the local bar or on vacation that they are toting to the local photo lab for processing. Nothing like a good reason to freak out though, right?!

We'll find out on CNN sometime that the drives contained Osama's location, Sadam's smoking gun, Slobadan Milosevich's memoirs, and Jimmy Hoffa's remains...oh, and the location of Salmon Rushdie's appartment that he shares with Elvis, the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot.

Re:We just assume they are secrects

[Thecarpe]

If the "secrets" were as big as the press intended them to be, we wouldn't have known anything about the contents, good or bad. 1) The LA Times is not an authority on much of anything except the spin that they put on the 2nd hand information that they gather. 2) Sensationalizing the contents of the disks (corrupt Afghani officials) doesn't make the information terribly sensitive.

It a war torn region like Afghanistan, it is no secret who is corrupt in the government, and it's no secret where military strikes are going to happen. The bottom line is that the media is turning routine military information into something more than it is and creating scandal where there should just be a little tightening of the reigns. I'm not saying that it's not a bad situation to have people thieving those thumb drives. I am saying that we are believing exactly what we are reading from a second / third hand source and that's a no-no. The LA Times, BBC, and AP for that matter are reporting on something that they know will appear terrible on first glance (that sells newspapers and tv time). If it is as bad as they reported, I will eat my own shoe when the congressional hearings commence.

What really happened

[slapout]

"Pssst...hey you....yeah you...come here."

"What?"

"Would you like to buy a usb drive?"

"No, leave me along."

"Wait, buddy. See that US base over there?"

"Yeah, so? This usb drive came from that base."

"Really?"

"Yes. Contains important US government data."

"I'll take it!!"

----

Takes drive home to find that it contains:

Three love letters.
One Word Doc. (A memo requestion vacation time.)
And a copy of solitaire.exe.