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stories filed under: "classified"
(Mis)Uses of Technology

(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
classified, contractor, lost data, marine one, p2p, us



US Contractor Follows Japanese Example: Leaks Military Secrets Via P2P

from the security-software-anyone? dept

Nearly four years ago, it was reported that a contractor in Japan who had plans for a nuclear powerstation leaked them via a file sharing app on his personal computer. It was never clearly explained why he had those classified work-related materials on his personal computer, but it led to quite a mess, with the government begging people to delete the nuclear secrets, if they found them. You would hope that with that as a guide, other government and military contractors around the world would be more careful. No such luck. Lots of folks have been sending in the news that the details on Marine One, President Obama's helicopter were recently leaked via file sharing software found on the computer of a (you guessed it) government contractor. Apparently no one takes things like basic computer security seriously anymore.

11 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
Too Much Free Time

Too Much Free Time

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
classified, patents



Would A Patent's Title Be Classified?

from the just-wondering... dept

Ira writes in to point us to a patent application on a sort of weapons device, where the title of the patent is listed solely as "Classified." It would be interesting if some patent attorneys in the crowd could weigh in on this. If the purpose of the patent system is to distribute knowledge, then you would think a classified patent doesn't make much sense -- but this is even odder, in that it's the title, not the patent itself (which is for some sort of weapon), that is "classified." It could be that the inventor himself (Peter Lockhart) set the title as "classified" but that doesn't make much sense either. Anyone know what's going on here?

17 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
(Mis)Uses of Technology

(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
classified, lost data, memory sticks, uk, usb keys



Why Are UK Defense Ministry Officials Carrying Classified Info On USB Keys?

from the seems-like-a-reasonable-question dept

Over in the UK, the Defense Ministry is admitting to the fact that it's lost plenty of laptops with classified info on them. That, alone, isn't really all that newsworthy, given how common it is for governments around the world to lose such things. What was more interesting was the admission that employees have also lost 26 portable memory sticks (USB keys) with classified info on them (out of a total of 131 memory sticks lost). Given just how easy it is to lose such USB keys, it makes you wonder why they would ever put classified info on them. One would hope that any such info would be encrypted, but the report doesn't seem to indicate one way or the other on that.

13 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
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