Thumb Drives Like Unsafe Sex

That's the view of Joel Brenner, national counter-intelligence executive, who said he views the use of thumb drives on national security information systems as "the electronic equivalent of unprotected sex and the biggest sources of what I call ETDs, or electronically transmitted diseases."

Brenner, who was speaking at the 4th annual Multi-INT conference, sponsored by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement in Vienna, Va., said thumb drives allow potential spies to steal more data than any spy in history, such as Aldrich Ames, Christopher Boyce, or Andrew Daulton Lee, who had to laboriously copy paper files before handing them over to Soviet intelligence agents.

Today, Brenner said, "You can walk into may corporate and government offices, slip a thumb drive into a USB port and download in seconds more information than all those traitors stole together. We've come a long way from Whittaker Chambers stuffing information in a hollow pumpkin."

Brenner also considers Apple iPods a security threat, even if they are never connected to a government network to download files. Brenner conceded that it would be nice for employees to use iPods in "classified spaces. But, it's also a recording device. The ear buds work real well that way. Or didn't you know that?"

While Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is in no rush to lift the Defense Department's thumb drive ban in the near future, Brenner told his audience of intelligence professionals, "I'm not telling you to abandon these dandy devices. Inexpensive electronics have brought us massive productivity gains and convenience."

But, Brenner added, that convenience has to be balanced against potential vulnerabilities caused by "unwitting or careless" use of the gizmos.

It sounds like the intelligence community - unlike Defense - views its employees as responsible adults. How refreshing.