USB Drives Need to be Brought Back

SGT Donald Croswhite — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 17:53:38 -0400

Burning CD's is not unrealistic but way behind the curve.
The Army needs to come out of 1992 and create a credentialed CAC synched USB system,
if not for everyone, for the chain of command, training rooms, armorers, and
supply sergeants. You can encrypt the drives and require the SM to log in to
use them. Especially since we are going into garrison mode, paperwork and
property are going to become the big push. And with the Army wanting to go
completely digital this only makes since.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 25 at 2014 6:04 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 18:04:53 -0400

I like this thinking. I think that the whole reason the USB drives have been disabled is due to abuse and misuse of computer systems. Realistically, burning to a CD is not much different, it still allows a Soldier to extract information. If the CD is burned from a home computer, it also provides an opportunity to transfer a virus from the home computer through the CD/DVD. I think your idea of CAC enabled encryption is a good idea, and I could see this not requiring any additional equipment. The only concern I have is that people will lose the USB drives.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 25 at 2014 6:16 PM

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 18:16:00 -0400

Bradley Manning didn't obtain his stolen documents via a USB drive, but I honestly doubt that big Army will authorize anything that would make another Bradley Manning-like incident easier.

Response by SFC Stephen P. made Mar 25 at 2014 6:24 PM

SFC Stephen P. — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 18:24:37 -0400

I thought the USB prohibition was related to the autorun.inf vulnerability and the military was slow to realize the problem had been patched.

Removable storage in general should be avoided. Cloud storage through organizational servers or AKO cloud is probably the way to go. Our focus should be to ensure greater connectivity of our devices.

Response by GySgt Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 27 at 2014 1:28 AM

GySgt Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 01:28:54 -0400

Take action, get with a comm guy and make it happen!

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 27 at 2014 2:20 AM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 02:20:01 -0400

We have been talking about this for a number of days. Burning discs offers no extra layer of security over CD/DVD. You can format a CD/DVD to be used as a USB drive. Thumb drives can compromise OPSEC, if a person has access to things they should not. Minimum necessary access will fix most of that. Problem is, in many places that is not what is done. Our BDE made the entire BDE folder accessible to all users on the server. Data, including PII, is freely accessible. That is a bigger problem than thumb drives.

Response by SGT Sean Musil made Mar 28 at 2014 9:47 AM

SGT Sean Musil — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 09:47:53 -0400

That's how a battalion S-1 shop operates everything is on a large share drive and they go into the saved files to print out the forms needed, But I do see where you are coming from as far as a company needing its own share drive to have company completed and saved forms. That would certainly make things run a whole lot smoother, because then you just scan a file to the database and it would he there as you need it.