Pentagon bans flash drives

From Mike Mount
CNN Senior Pentagon Producer
WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Pentagon has banned the use of flash memory or "thumb drives" because a virus believed to be passed on by one of these drives is spreading through Department of Defense networks, according to Pentagon officials.

Defense offices around the world have been told to not use the drives and to turn in any government-owned portable memory cards, the officials said. The ban also covers any device that uses a USB connection to plug into a computer.

Pentagon representatives would not officially confirm the ban or discuss the specifics of the virus for security reasons.

Pentagon officials, none authorized to talk about the cyber-security problem, said the virus seemed to originate in Europe and started spreading around several Defense networks this week. As of Friday, systems in the Pentagon building itself had not been affected, however, employees there are still banned from using the devices, officials said.