The Wikileaks scandal has been a public relations disaster for the United States, and the United States military is starting to taste the lash of punishment. In a Cyber Control Order issued on December 3 by Major General Richard Webber of Air Force Network Operations, military personnel are banned from using removable media disks like CDs, DVDs, and thumb drives. That’s right, every easy way of moving information from one computer to another has been banned, effective immediately.
The directive, aimed at the US Airforce in this case, commands airmen to “immediately cease use of removable media on all systems, servers, and stand alone machines residing on SIPRNET. Unauthorized data transfers routinely occur on classified networks using removable media and are a method the insider threat uses to exploit classified information. To mitigate the activity, all Air Force organizations must immediately suspend all SIPRNET data transfer activities on removable media.”
That’ll definitely make the job of the military’s support troops much harder, since most military bases are out in the middle of nowhere and the most secure computer systems aren’t connected to the rest of the network. For now, most military computer techs are ignoring the order; however, that’s a risky proposition, as those who violate the no-disk order face court martial under Article 92 of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice.
Tags: United States Military bans removable media, US Military, Wikileaks, document security, US military bans removable media, US military bans CDs and flash drives, US military bans disks, Major General Richard Webber, Cyber Control Order, Air Force Network Operations, military threatens disk users with court martial, Article 92, Uniformed Code of Military Justice, SIPRNET