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US Army Files Found On Second-Hand MP3 Player
MichaelSmith writes "A New Zealand man who bought a second hand MP3 player from a store in the US found it loaded with the names and personal details of American soldiers, as well as a mission briefing and information about equipment.
Chris Ogle says he will return the unit to the US Defense Department if asked, and that it never worked as a music player anyway.
A
slightly different version of the story is available from TVNZ."
The Army should ask for the return of the MP3 player (and pay for it), find out who put the files on it, and punish them. I don't expect that to happen.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is usually crucified.
If the military is not smart enough to purchase this item from the person and investigate how and who placed those files on this player then security is an afterthought and obviously flawed. This type of information couldn't have been obtained by a low level recruit either but someone higher in the chain of command. Either the FBI or the CIA should look into this without military oversight so there is no chance of influence. I doubt it will happen but I hope they do.
Few seemingly innocuous things can get you in greater trouble in any part of the federal government, especially the DoD than bringing a personal portable storage device into an area that is restricted. Copying sensitive information onto one is, itself, a very serious offense that if a soldier gets caught doing will not only revoke any security clearance they had but quite possibly end their career in the federal government.
i would think that in an organization as large and as stereotypically stringent as the us army that they'd have some sort of exit policy for equipment and personnel.
I would have thought so, too, until I spent a few years in the US military. You'd be amazed how much and what kind of stuff makes it past policies (exit or otherwise). When I lived in a military town, it seems like I'd see a story every year or so about about service members getting caught with garages full of new and/or used stuff.
[b.belong('us') for b in bases if b.owner() == 'you']
Except they would like you use the USB mouse, USB keyboard to actually do some work :-)
Easier to just lock the PC itself inside a cabinet so the end user doesn't have access to the box itself, just the keyboard, mouse, monitor.
Oh, so it was a Zune?
The problem is, if you ban storage devices, you're gonna have to provide an equally convenient way to move data around. Otherwise everyone's going to find their own method, which may be as simple as emailing it around.
The issue is that rules are made, but the rulemakers don't realize the reason why people were doing what they were doing. Ban storage devices, and if someone still needs to get data from point A to point B, well, you've just got a bunch of people who are going to find a way to either circumvent the rule, or to find an alternative, which may not be as secure.
Banning the devices without an equally convenient alternative will just result in people finding workarounds. Just don't be surprised what those workarounds are. Interfere with people Getting Stuff Done(tm) without educating them on How to Get Stuff Done without X...
I also recently purchased a used IPOD and found important naval information stored on it, most notably recruitment details describing how new recruits would be able to
When your team and others meet
amongst other available activities. In the interests of national security, I deleted the file in question immediately.