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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.""
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?
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?
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
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.