US Army Files Found On Second-Hand MP3 Player

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."

Re:And the previous owner was?

[A. B3ttik]

I really doubt that the US Army is going to try and punish an innocent New Zealander for trying to do the right thing.

Although I guess I'm not sure that announcing this to the news was "the right thing."

They Should purchase it back

[ITJC68]

If the military is not smart enough to purchase this item from the person and investigate how and who placed those files on this player then security is an afterthought and obviously flawed. This type of information couldn't have been obtained by a low level recruit either but someone higher in the chain of command. Either the FBI or the CIA should look into this without military oversight so there is no chance of influence. I doubt it will happen but I hope they do.

Re:And the previous owner was?

[jandrese]

My guess is that like so much stuff found in second hand shops near bases, the MP3 player was stolen from the previous owner and sold for beer money. The files on it probably weren't classified or particularly sensitive and the previous owner was using it as a fancy thumb drive.

What an idiot!

[tyroneking]

Why did he come out and admit this? The US will either try to extradite him or ban him from entering the US again. And the poor soldier responsible will get shafted too. For what? Just wipe the drive and pretend it never happened moron.

So what?

[TooMad]

You can find secret information on wikipedia. After getting out of the service I decided to see if certain details were on certain pages and found the secret information. There is probably much more throughout the entire site that seems quite benign but it is still classified.

Re:And the previous owner was?

[whisper_jeff]

"I really doubt that the US Army is going to try and punish an innocent New Zealander for trying to do the right thing."

Unfortunately, "doing the right thing" does not protect one from bureaucrats. When someone in a suit wants someone punished, they will find a target, even if it happens to be the person who did "the right thing." My favourite example of this was a woman who worked for a mid-sized company as an accountant. She noticed something questionable on the books and reported it to her boss. Her boss told her to ignore it and proceed. She knew that her boss was dodging the IRS and, not wanting to be a party to tax evasion, she reported the company to the IRS and quit. The IRS began an investigation and found, sure enough, the company was illegally avoiding paying taxes. The company, of course, used every method to dodge the IRS. The IRS, having lost their obvious target, decided to use a different tactic and elected to go after the accountant who was working for the company at the time the questionable events took place.

The woman who reported the situation to them.

The IRS ceased her home and garnished her wages (from her new job) to pay off the outstanding taxes. Doing the right thing resulted in this woman being screwed, to say the least.

Yes, this is an extreme example and it's also an example of the old IRS (they've apparently had their power to abuse people reduced since then - this story took place ten or 15 years ago, iirc). But, it is still an example of someone doing the right thing yet still being turned into a target so that someone in a suit can punish _someone_.

Re:And the previous owner was?

[Anonymous Coward]

Link or it didn't happen

Re:And the previous owner was?

[Thelasko]

This would also make a good cover for spies.

It works like this:
1. Spy fills MP3 player with classified information.
2. Spy drops off MP3 player at local second hand shop.
3. Handler buys MP3 player.
4. Profit!

Re:What would you do?

[L4t3r4lu5]

A guy in my local (sorry, no citations) was sent an indecant image of (obviously) a child, and called teh police. They duely arrived, took a look at it, and took the guy out of the room.

"Ok Sir, i'm going to go out the front door and close it behind me. Before I knock on your door again, that picture will have been deleted from your computer and you'll have forgotten about it. IF you mention it, i'll have to arrest you for posession of an indecent image of a minor."

Even the cops think things like this are best swept under the carpet.

Disclaimer: UK Law, YMMV

Re:And the previous owner was?

[whisper_jeff]

Given that I saw it on 60 Minutes (or some such show) about ten years ago, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a link...

Re:what are the exit policies of the army?

[palegray.net]

The Army doesn't used iPods to store data. Service members, however, have a habit of ignoring policies and using whatever storage mechanism is handy to transfer data between systems. I'm in the Navy, and I've seen similar behavior. Yes, there are policies against it on my side as well. Stuff still happens, and this is exactly why we have rules concerning storage devices.

Re:And the previous owner was?

[Chih]

See, that's why this guy waited until Bush was out of office :)

Re:And the previous owner was?

[El Torico]

I've been in the US Army and I've worked with the US Army for a few years, and I've never seen anyone punished (Article 15 or court martial, or even a counseling statement) for an Information Security violation.

Re:what are the exit policies of the army?

[Frosty Piss]

Banning the devices without an equally convenient alternative will just result in people finding workarounds. Just don't be surprised what those workarounds are. Interfere with people Getting Stuff Done(tm) without educating them on How to Get Stuff Done without X...

This is the case with the current ban on thumb drives. For example, after years of being told we're moving electronic, the AF base I'm at switched to electronic crew pubs and forms, and other mission data from flights is built on board the aircraft, saved on a thumb drive, and downloaded to a system back home after the mission. There are work-arounds, but an entire system built on technology we can no longer use is an inconvenience that lends itself to unapproved / undocumented workarounds with even more security questions. We've always used government supplied thumb drives, but now a lot of people just (surreptitiously) use (more unknown) personal drives.

Re:what are the exit policies of the army?

[Anonymous Coward]

Eh while equating anyone to Hitler is a stretch, it was a bit unnerving to see hundreds of thousands of people chant his mantra ("change") in comparison to the "Heils" of yesteryear. And no I'm not from America.