Pentagon lifts thumb drive ban

Thumb drives had been banned on U.S. military networks, but no longer. The concern about using memory sticks, CD's and removable flash media was obvious--the potential for loss or theft of data and the risk of viruses and attacks by adversaries. But there's been a change of heart from the U.S. Strategic Command.

The ban was first imposed in November 2008 after the Agent.btz virus began working its way through military networks. The worm spread by copying itself from thumb drive to computer and back again. Once on a PC, "it automatically downloads code from another location."

WIRED reports that the Strategic Command hopes to keep the spread of any viruses to a minimum. It will do this by only permitting "properly inventoried, government-procured and owned devices" on military networks.

Some experts are skeptical that the limitations won't have much of an impact, and worry that the concerns that led to the original ban have not been addressed.

For more on DoD and thumb drives:
- see this WIRED article

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