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USB Drive Loaded With British Military Troop Movements Found on Floor of a Nightclub
Posted by Sean Fallon at 7:45 AM on September 10, 2008
It looks as thought the UKs Ministry of Defence is about to come down hard on the person responsible for leaving a USB drive loaded with troop movements on the floor of "The Beach" nightclub in Newquay, Cornwall. The drive was picked up by a random clubgoer who promptly turned it over to the most responsible party he could think of—a national newspaper. The MoD is currently investigating the incident but the fact is that more than 120 sensitive USB drives have been lost by the MoD since 2004—so it seems to me that the most appropriate course of action here is to stop putting classified data on USB drives and handing it to idiots. [BBC]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
nutbastard
Posted 8:38 AM 10/9/08
@Git Em SteveDave is starlost:
no linux love. open source windows-only stuff weirds me out.
nutbastard
anonymousryan
Posted 8:33 AM 10/9/08
I don't see what the big deal is, it's not like he was going to meet any extremist muslims at a discotheque.
anonymousryan
electrikecho
Posted 8:27 AM 10/9/08
Nightclub Patron: "Hmmmm, I wonder what's on this flashdrive... Ministry - oh sweet! Some new Ministry of Sound!
... Oh wait - it's just some Ministry of Defense plans... what a gyp."
electrikecho
Aoi
Posted 8:24 AM 10/9/08
You would think that they would have already had them encrypted. @Git Em SteveDave is starlost:
Aoi
Git Em SteveDave is starlost
Posted 8:15 AM 10/9/08
Dear MOD,
Please visit [www.truecrypt.org] . It's free, and stops reporters from bothering you. Unless they have a few spare supercomputers and 1,000 years to kill.
Sincerely,
America
Git Em SteveDave is starlost
Parapraxis
Posted 8:09 AM 10/9/08
I think rectal suppositories would go great to hide these USB drives.
Unless you're breakdancing, those USB drives ain't comin' out.
Parapraxis
dc-united
Posted 8:04 AM 10/9/08
As soon as you come up with a fool-proof system, they come up with a bigger fool.
This actually just speaks to terrible physical security. If you want to keep something tight, don't allow magnetic media to leave the premises. That's step 1.
dc-united
Human Bomb Committed Solaricide
Posted 8:56 AM 10/9/08
I knew I shouldn't have attached that USB key chain to my rave glow stick!
Human Bomb Committed Solaricide
dc-united
Posted 8:50 AM 10/9/08
@m4ximusprim3: You don't need a USB drive for that. Just distribute little squares of white cloth to every soldier and you're good to go.
dc-united
FiveLiters
Posted 8:48 AM 10/9/08
Somewhere,right now,Austin Powers is going "uh-oh!"
FiveLiters
m4ximusprim3
Posted 8:45 AM 10/9/08
Good thing it didn't detail the movement of french troops. All that retreating would make it very confusing.
m4ximusprim3
AndersonBMX
Posted 9:38 AM 10/9/08
why not put some explosive device in these kind of classified data flashes? sorta "this flash drive will explode in 15 seconds..." or "this flash drive will spam your mail with gay porn in 15 seconds..."
AndersonBMX
kz26
Posted 10:33 AM 10/9/08
@nutbastard:
Um, TrueCrypt HAS a Linux (and Mac version).
[www.truecrypt.org]
kz26
Jesse in Japan
Posted 10:30 AM 10/9/08
Maybe it's not such a good idea for the Ministry of Defence to be using USB flash drives in the first place.
Jesse in Japan
Xavoc
Posted 11:16 AM 10/9/08
The most amusing of this is that there are thumb drives out there that require you to authenticate before mounting, if you screw the password up more than 8 times in a row it will autoformat itself clean.
Xavoc
jcrockerman
Posted 10:59 AM 10/9/08
ha....sorry about the triple post. I just figured out what the hearts mean. Carry on.
jcrockerman
jcrockerman
Posted 10:57 AM 10/9/08
awww...am I the only one without a heart?
jcrockerman
jcrockerman
Posted 10:56 AM 10/9/08
uhm...did I miss something??? what's the deal with the Hearts next to our names.....
anywayz... TrueCrypt is awesome for us, The Average Joe....but the MOD???? come on!!!
jcrockerman
Benzodiazepine
Posted 11:42 AM 10/9/08
Responsibility?
What is that mean ?
Benzodiazepine
Con Seannery
Posted 11:50 AM 10/9/08
Or, was it planted as a decoy...
Con Seannery
waveman216
Posted 11:49 AM 10/9/08
No Nine Inch Nails songs on it?
waveman216
shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog
Posted 1:20 PM 10/9/08
Of course, maybe they roll a little differently in Britain.
shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog
shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog
Posted 1:12 PM 10/9/08
@shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog: A hack meaning information retrieved in more mischievous ways.
shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog
shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog
Posted 1:10 PM 10/9/08
Umm, you arn't even allowed to leave secured areas with that kind of information so I'd be amazed if this wasn't a hack instead.
shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog
BiZarRroBALlmeR
Posted 1:07 PM 10/9/08
Is there a war going on I don't know about across the pond?
BiZarRroBALlmeR
GadgetPlay
Posted 3:26 PM 10/9/08
@anonymousryan: Wow, are you naive. Have you the faintest idea how many legal and illegal Islamists there are now in Britain? Europe? Unless you were being sarcastic, at which point I applaud you for your pithy comment.
GadgetPlay
LifesSweetDrug
Posted 4:18 PM 10/9/08
How many times has this sort of thing happened in Britain now?
LifesSweetDrug
Mrrix32
Posted 7:38 PM 10/9/08
@shamoononon has a hebetudinous dog: Technicaly your talking about "cracking" but yeah the media refers to it as hacking here as well.
My PC is more safe than top secret information :P
Mrrix32
davecw
Posted 8:41 PM 10/9/08
Sean Fallon wrote: "so it seems to me that the most appropriate course of action here is to stop putting classified data on USB drives and handing it to idiots".
Hey, you're pretty smart - fancy running our country......please?
davecw
ideaman2020
Posted 10:17 PM 10/9/08
@jcrockerman: Valentine's Day has come early this year.
ideaman2020
timmytimetravel
Posted 8:34 AM 10/9/08
"He was so wierd, this guy at the bar. I saw him earlier he looked all uptight, walkin like a cowboy, youknow...... Then he seemed to have loosend up but kept scouring the floor for something...
I asked him what he'd lost, he started talking about flashing!" Then I asked him if thats a line that really works for him with the ladies and he said he could tell me, but then he'd have to kill me? We gotta find a better club..
timmytimetravel
AnAphexTwin
Posted 12:41 AM 11/9/08
@GadgetPlay: "legal and illegal Islamists"?
Care to explain? Unless, of course, you were being sarcastic, at which point I applaud you for your pithy comment.
AnAphexTwin
RyaninCalgary
Posted 3:01 AM 11/9/08
You know they make USB drives with built in hardware encryption. We use them for buisness because people lose the dam things all the time. They cost almost the same as the cheap drives. Time to upgade
RyaninCalgary
Duc
Posted 5:00 AM 11/9/08
Disinformation?
Duc
booksy
Posted 5:27 AM 11/9/08
@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy-->:
Actually in the US military it is a violation of opsec to put classified information on a removable drive and not label it. It is a further violation to carry it on your person out of a secure area buy your self.
Not only that but we disable all USB ports on classified computers in the military.
booksy
VideoVampire
Posted 8:02 AM 11/9/08
They would lose USB drives even if they had hardcore orgy pics of Her Majesty herself.
VideoVampire
toemissile
Posted 3:39 PM 15/9/08
@booksy:
I recently finished up my enlistment in the Air Force and I worked with classified material on a daily basis. I'm not sure about other services, but there are plenty of classified items/documents that can be carried by a single person out of a secure area, of course it *goes without saying* that it's rather frowned upon to just leave such things laying about. And USB ports aren't disabled, perhaps systems that are classified higher than TS, but I doubt it.
toemissile