US Army bans USB devices to stop worm from spreading

The US Army has temporarily banned the use of USB devices, along with floppy discs, CDs, external drives, flash media cards and all other removable media devices, to prevent a worm from spreading through its networks. According to the Register, the worm that caused this extreme measure is Agent-BTZ, a variant of the SillyFDC worm.

While the ban itself is bound to cause some distress, as it would in any other organization, the work flow will be more extensively affected in the US Army because for some offices email or online file transfers are not allowed either.

The measure is a bit drastic, but at least something was done. I personally would have expected a safer endpoint security system and protected USB drives, given the Army’s impressive history with lost hardware and data breaches (see some examples here, here and here). Who knows, maybe this time they will learn

Mindblowing Data Breaches of 2007

CSO Online has recently published a top 10 of the most significant data breaches of 2007. They have analyzed stolen hardware, malware infections and other such security breaching activities. CSO has also concluded the “most brilliant lunacy” of the year was to require the usage of social securities numbers as passwords.

If you haven’t guessed who the dark winner is, it’s the nasty TJX affair. But considering other data and facts we’ve recently told you about, the CSO estimated losses seem to be a bit off. Nevertheless, the top is quite interesting and a very good reminder security should never be taken lightly.