The Pentagon has banned the use of portable USB drives after fears that they
are being used to propagate viruses.
No official statement has been released, but internal emails have shown that
the Pentagon wants to recall all USB sticks distributed to employees. Warnings
emerged last week of a
major
outbreak of malware targeting USB drives.
"For most organisations, completely banning USB Flash drives would restrict
the productivity and efficiency of end users," said Jason Holloway, sales
manager for Northern Europe at portable storage firm SanDisk.
"USB drives are productivity enhancing, but the risk of malware infection
must be stopped with layers of security, such as hardware-based USB encryption
and password protection, and virus scanning on the drive itself."
While refusing to confirm or deny the recall, Pentagon spokesman Bryan
Whitman acknowledged the global spread of USB malware.
"This is not solely a department problem, this is not solely a government
problem," he told Associated Press.
Virus propagation via USB stick is a throwback to the first virus techniques
in which floppy discs were used to carry the code. But for an organisation like
the Pentagon to take such a drastic step, the spread of the code must be wider
than usual.
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