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Real spies still use floppies!

A friend who worked in the "Blue Cube" was prevented from taking media out of or bringing media into his project work space. So he just downloaded what he needed into his HP41C calculator. Security thought it was just a calculator.
 
Same in commercial companies, IP is easy to steal.
And the bigger the company the easier it is.
It's all about the wrong person at the right place at the right time.
 
carangil said:
USB keys? Leave that to the movies. Want to steal data? Use a floppy.
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You have to admit that floppies are getting pretty obscure in many people's view. What's interesting is that this was a clear way to transfer files from a computer which was set up to be "secure". The part that gets me is that this computer would have been set up by an (either military or civilian) IT worker with some speciality in security. That this person (or persons) considered security by obscurity to be sufficient for military purposes, speaks volumes about the state of computer security nowadays.
 
Even with the state we disabled removable media or removed any floppy/cdrom drives from public access systems. It's getting more and more tricky though with the number of devices that one can store data on (i.e phone). I know a lot of secure facilities where you aren't allowed to even take your phone into the data center with you and don't allow cameras on any devices (phone with camera gets locked up until you sign out, etc). I guess some minor oversights on their part obviously. Even my current employer we require systems all have full drive encryption and they'll automatically encrypt removable media (which some folks end up bricking their phones or data when they're new). Pretty surprising though for a security minded location.
 
I onced worked in an area where "Tempest" secure devices were dealt with. Hard drive failures required complete disassembly and then the disk (platen) was then held to a belt sander. Once the surface was obliterated, the disk was put in a vice and folded into quarters. A small vehicle with a flashing light would arrive every once in a while and collect the scruntched disks. The next step was out of the area but they were eventually smelted. Not being a security expert, I would say there would litlle or no chance of any data recovery.
 
Ole Juul said:
Oh good. I'm not very smart so I've got nothing to loose, but I was afraid somebody would try to steal 192.168.1.1 from me.
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I find occasionally that a "new" acronym is the same as one that I'm familiar with, which makes things very confusing for a time. "IP" doesn't even make me blink any more. It's what I call the "Cole Porter" problem (look about 2:00 in).
 
commodorejohn said:
The Looney Tunes method of data security. Bet it worked, though.
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This place did have its quirks. When you arrived for the first time during the day, you stood in front of a small portal and were then visually recognized and your ID would then be put next to you picture. The only people wearing ID's were visitors. You took nothing in that wasn't inspected and likewise, nothing went out. You didn't get paid any extra for all of this either.
 
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Agent Orange said:
I onced worked in an area where "Tempest" secure devices were dealt with. Hard drive failures required complete disassembly and then the disk (platen) was then held to a belt sander. Once the surface was obliterated, the disk was put in a vice and folded into quarters. A small vehicle with a flashing light would arrive every once in a while and collect the scruntched disks. The next step was out of the area but they were eventually smelted. Not being a security expert, I would say there would litlle or no chance of any data recovery.
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When I worked in the Army, we just had the munitions people burn the remains of classified computer media together with the lots of ammunition they were destroying. At 1500 degrees centigrade, everything is gone.
 
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