What's in a Thumb Drive Kit?

The U.S. Strategic Command says that military units in Afghanistan soon will start receiving thumb drive kits that meet its >new flash media policy for Defense Department networks and computers.

STRATCOM said on Feb. 18 that flash media such as thumb drives should be used only as a "last resort" to meet operational requirements -- and Afghanistan, where network bandwidth is at a premium, sure meets that last resort requirement.

But it's hard to get an answer from STRATCOM on what exactly is in a flash media kit because it has not publicly released details, a STRATCOM spokesman told me.

Meanwhile, legions of PR folks continue to flood my e-mail with pitches for companies that make stuff they think meets the Defense requirements, even though STRATCOM is mum on the subject.

I think these folks get paid by the number of e-mails they send out.