Marine Corps Threatened By Loss of Flash Drive

Identity theft threatens more than 200,000 Marines—including thousands in Afghanistan and Iraq—thanks to the loss of a flash drive containing their personnel files.

The files were stored in the drive by a Marine Corps officer who was studying re-enlistment bonuses. Although the information is in a proprietary format, the software to read it is available through many corporations, universities and government agencies.

What staggers the mind is that our Armed Forces do not use flash drives with biometric security, passwords or encryption—any of which would reduce the risk of the loss. These drives are readily available at even your local Target store. That’s not to say that a group of very determined hackers couldn’t break through anyway, but it certainly would stop most.

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