Let's Deal With Facts
By
Bob Brewin
I woke up today with what can only be described as a bombardment of e-mails from PR folks who had clients panting to give me their views on the U.S. Strategic Command lifting its ban on thumb drives and other flash media, a notion they picked up from stories in <a href=http://defense.iwpnewsstand.com/newsstand_search.asp?ACTION=SEARCHENGINE&search=inside+defense+flash+media&ORIGINATOR=Google>Inside Defense</a>, <a href=http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/02/hackers-troops-rejoice-pentagon-lifts-thumb-drive-ban/>Wired</a> and <a href=http://gcn.com/articles/2010/02/18/dod-lifts-usb-drive-ban.aspx>Government Computer News</a>, which based its story on the Wired and Inside Defense reports.
I woke up today with what can only be described as a bombardment of e-mails from PR folks who had clients panting to give me their views on the U.S. Strategic Command lifting its ban on thumb drives and other flash media, a notion they picked up from stories in Inside Defense, Wired and Government Computer News, which based its story on the Wired and Inside Defense reports.
But, as it turned out, STRATCOM did not repeal its November 2008 ban. Instead, it decided to permit use of flash media only as a "last resort for operational mission requirements," according to Vice Adm. Carl Mauney, STRATCOM deputy commander.
Navy Cmdr. Steve Curry and Air Force Master Sgt. Kevin Allen at the STRATCOM public affairs shop both deserve kudos for turning around a query I submitted on Thursday and providing me with a factual statement overnight that debunked many assumptions about flash media that flooded my inbox this morning.
As Joe Friday, the famed Los Angeles Police Department detective, said in the 1950s, "Just the facts, ma'am."