The Defense Department has banned, at least temporarily, the use of external computer flash drives in the Pentagon because of a virus threat that officials detected on defense networks. While defense officials would not confirm the ban, messages were sent to department employees informing them of the new restrictions. As part of the ban, the Pentagon was collecting any of the small flash drives that were bought or provided to workers by the department, according to one message distributed to employees. Workers are being told there is no guarantee they will ever get the devices back, and it was not clear how long the ban will last.
Though the DOD distributed the thumb drives it is hard to believe they are still allowing their use. It makes you wonder how many viruses they have to battle every day? If you were DOD IT would you want thumb drives to be used on your secure system?