[ISN] Defense Department to partially lift flash drive ban

[InfoSec News]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10383372-245.html

By Elinor Mills
InSecurity Complex
CNet News
October 26, 2009

The U.S. Department of Defense ban on USB thumb drives instated nearly a 
year ago will eventually be partially lifted to allow authorized people 
to use official flash drives for mission-critical functions, according 
to a top military official.

"In the future, we expect that a government-owned and procured USB flash 
media, that is uniquely and electronically identifiable for use in 
support of mission-essential functions on DoD networks, will be 
permitted for use by authorized individuals," Robert Carey, chief 
information officer for the Department of the Navy, wrote in his blog 
recently.

"We are working on upgraded antivirus and malware detection, alert and 
eradication capabilities, as well as implementation of controls to deny 
network access to unauthorized USB flash media and revised operating 
procedures for scanning and cleaning flash media," he wrote. "The bottom 
line is, the days of using personally owned flash media or using flash 
media collected at conferences or trade shows are long gone."

Thumb drives, CDs, and other removable storage devices were banned last 
November after military computers became infected with a worm that was 
partially spread by thumb drives.

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