Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks
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Re: Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks
#2It's actually a good plan. I'm surprised most secret systems aren't just accessible via thin client without any bulk transfer capabilities.
Re: Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks
#3> But the U.S. military is telling its troops to stop using CDs, DVDs, thumb drives and every other form of removable media — or risk a court martial.
I'm pretty sure anyone stealing the data is already risking a court martial.
If the secret files are really so wide open that they're just counting on people not being able to take them, then there's some much larger problems that they better start addressing.
Also, I have a really hard time believing this one Private in the army could download hundreds of thousands of State department secret communications, then smuggle them out on CDs. Something is very broken if that's true. Either Manning is just a scapegoat, or there's massive security problems with secret information, or both.
Re: Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks
#4If they needed to use a sneakernet because of a low bandwidth link, it seems like they could eventually migrate to a system with the ability to transfer encrypted copies to removable media. Any other trusted computer on the network could download a key to decode the data, while making the keys unavailable to the end user (at least to the greatest degree possible).
Re: Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks
#5> But the U.S. military is telling its troops to stop using CDs, DVDs, thumb drives and every other form of removable media — or risk a court martial. I'm pretty sure anyone stealing the data is already risking a court martial. If the secret files are really so wide open that they're just counting on people not being able to take them, then there's some much larger problems that they better start addressing. Also, I…
I think it's pretty damning to the military that they have such huge issues with their secret data. Relatively pedestrian measures required by standards like PCI-DSS could increase the security of these systems many-fold.
Re: Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks
#6If they needed to use a sneakernet because of a low bandwidth link, it seems like they could eventually migrate to a system with the ability to transfer encrypted copies to removable media. Any other trusted computer on the network could download a key to decode the data, while making the keys unavailable to the end user (at least to the greatest degree possible).
It's not low bandwidth link; it's intentional design. Secure computers are not able to connect to the outside world.
Re: Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks
#7It's actually a good plan. I'm surprised most secret systems aren't just accessible via thin client without any bulk transfer capabilities.
I know that some government contractors fill the USB ports with epoxy.
Re: Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks
#8> But the U.S. military is telling its troops to stop using CDs, DVDs, thumb drives and every other form of removable media — or risk a court martial. I'm pretty sure anyone stealing the data is already risking a court martial. If the secret files are really so wide open that they're just counting on people not being able to take them, then there's some much larger problems that they better start addressing. Also, I…
I'm pretty sure anyone stealing the data is already risking a court martial.
Anyone stealing the data, yes. I read the article as saying that people using remobvable media for purposes consistent with their jobs will now be subject to court martial.
Example: A machine is normally connected to the network. It is moved to another location and is not connected to the network yet. Someone using a thumb drive to copy a file from a machine on the network to the unconnected machine is breaking the new directive even if the thumb drive never leaves the office or is erased immediately thereafter.
Just an opinion of a paraphrasing of a leaked memo describing a directive...
Re: Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks
#9If they needed to use a sneakernet because of a low bandwidth link, it seems like they could eventually migrate to a system with the ability to transfer encrypted copies to removable media. Any other trusted computer on the network could download a key to decode the data, while making the keys unavailable to the end user (at least to the greatest degree possible).
It's not low bandwidth link; it's intentional design. Secure computers are not able to connect to the outside world.
From the article:
"...classified computers are often disconnected from the network, or are in low-bandwidth areas."
Re: Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks
#10Quite a few members of HN work at companies where the only way to get access to source code, and other secure files, are through thin clients. Sometimes virtualized. At least one of those companies _really_ doubled down on security Last December/January of this year as a result of a serious intrusion.