Fox News is reporting that the Pentagon was the target of a cyber attack so severe that it has now banned the use of all external memory devices, such as flash drives and the like. Apparently, some type of worm or virus has been unleashed on the agency’s computer network, and is quickly spreading throughout the system.

Officials are not specifing what type of worm or virus it may be, only saying an alert had been posted for it, and that it was “taking steps to mitigate the virus.” The computers affected are part of the Global Information Grid, or GIG, and for security reasons the Pentagon does not speak on the specifics of intrusions to that system.

A guess as to what the malware may be could be gleaned from a post to the Symantec Security Response blog from Wednesday. It warns of an increase in USB-based malware attacks, and listed several different viruses and worms known to be using removable drives as a way to propogate themselves.

 
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Read more: Malware, Security