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DOD Prohibits Removable Storage Devices To Stop Worm
Doug Caverly
Staff Writer
2008-11-21
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"Lockdown" must be the Department of Defense's middle name. As a worm seems to be making its way through the military's computers, the DOD has responded by banning flash drives, CDs, and just about everything else that can store data and be moved from one machine to another.
 | | DOD Prohibits Removable Storage Devices To Stop Worm |  |
Noah Schactman reports, "The problem, according to a second Army e-mail, was prompted by a 'virus called Agent.btz.' That's a variation of the 'SillyFDC' worm, which spreads by copying itself to thumb drives and the like. When that drive or disk is plugged into a second computer, the worm replicates itself again - this time on the PC."
The DOD's response should effectively stop the worm's spread, then, and give experts a chance to track down and clean up affected machines. It might even help with other military security issues, since it'll be harder for important information to get lost or stolen when it's not being shuttled around as much.
But since the length of the new ban hasn't been determined (or at least announced), everyone from suits in the Pentagon to soldiers in the field may be faced with data-movement nuisances for quite some time.
This situation hasn't, at least, led to any real problems so far.
About the Author:
Doug is a staff writer for SecurityProNews, InternetFinancialNews, SearchNewz, and WebProNews.
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