Network Security News

Defense department looking at flash drive, social networking security

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

The Department of Defense may partially lift a ban on USB flash drives, which had been abolished in November 2008 because of worms and viruses spreading across defense networks from infected USB thumb drives.

Military officials enacted the ban to protect sensitive information from data theft, but the blanket ban on flash drives causes inconveniences for troops using the devices to carry data in the field, CNET News reported.

Robert Carey, chief information officer for the Department of the Navy, posted on the Navy's CIO blog that some uses of flash drives will be permitted, although the department is assessing whether to allow personnel to access social networking sites (SNS).

"The benefits of access to SNS and other user generated content sites are great; however, the risks also must be weighed and factored into decisions," Carey said on the blog.

Flash drives can carry forms of malware that jump to the drives from infected PCs and can spread by downloading from the memory stick onto new computers.

The Conficker worm has spread to potentially millions of PCs jumping from USB flash drives onto machines. Worms also spread rapidly on SNS through hacked accounts.ADNFCR-1765-ID-19428462-ADNFCR

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