US Army Files Found On Second-Hand MP3 Player 184
MichaelSmith writes "A New Zealand man who bought a second hand MP3 player from a store in the US found it loaded with the names and personal details of American soldiers, as well as a mission briefing and information about equipment.
Chris Ogle says he will return the unit to the US Defense Department if asked, and that it never worked as a music player anyway.
A
slightly different version of the story is available from TVNZ."
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
Not just the military (Score:3, Informative)
Most of the US Gov is banning USB key drives, music players plugged into computers, and any other read/write media.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:They Should purchase it back (Score:3, Informative)
Re:And the previous owner was? (Score:2, Informative)
Punish them for what? Is it illegal to keep names and information of unclassified material on your personal computer /mp3 players? At worst, it's FOUO (for official use only) information. While it could reflect on your performance evaluation negatively, there is nothing illegal about the release of FOUO information.
If it contains the names & details of armed forces personnel it could very well be defined as a national security breach. The fact it contains a mission briefing & details of equipment would pretty much seal that one.
Re:what are the exit policies of the army? (Score:5, Informative)
i would think that in an organization as large and as stereotypically stringent as the us army that they'd have some sort of exit policy for equipment and personnel.
I would have thought so, too, until I spent a few years in the US military. You'd be amazed how much and what kind of stuff makes it past policies (exit or otherwise). When I lived in a military town, it seems like I'd see a story every year or so about about service members getting caught with garages full of new and/or used stuff.
Re:And the previous owner was? (Score:2, Informative)
You don't think the army punishes people for violating secure data storage and usage? While slashdot is well-known for it's pessimistic view on life and thinks that every situation requires a tin foil hat you should a LITTLE more faith.
By bringing this to the attention of the DoD they can determine what needs to be done with the MP3 player (most likely buy it from the person). The army takes a very dim view on allowing the names of its personnel leaking to the world. They are very protective about their soldiers. Plus they want to make sure the mission is not sensitive (it could be an old, declassified mission).
If they can ascertain who owned the mp3 player they will most likely have some words with him, and depending on the reasoning behind him putting data on the mp3 player and the other information on it they will determine what to do.
The army spends a LOT of money and a LOT of time securing their data - everyone knows this, especially the slashdot crew. Taking that into consideration to say the army will do very little if anything is a bit of a stretch on your part.
Re:Not just the military (Score:2, Informative)
They've already disabled USB storage devices on ALL DoD information systems. Not just ones with access to "sensitive" information.
Re:And the previous owner was? (Score:3, Informative)
I really doubt that the US Army is going to try and punish an innocent New Zealander for trying to do the right thing.
Not punish, as such, no. But he has had access to information that the US didn't want him to have. I would imagine red flags will be popping up next to his name for quite a long time: he should be very very circumspect if he ever has to go through US immigration, for the foreseeable future.
Although I guess I'm not sure that announcing this to the news was "the right thing."
He gave a copy of the files to the local news, according to the TVNZ article.