Trusted With Secrets, But Not With A Chevy Aveo

There is mixed news on the information security front.

First, OMB's memo on security assessment teams. Just because the horse has left is no reason not to close the barn door, I suppose.

And it's good that DOD has banned thumb drives again (they were banned before, but DOD relented in February 2010), even if the reason was to prevent worms from being introduced into computer systems rather than to prevent files being removed from them.

But the big problem, it seems to me, remains the promiscuous way in which DOD and other agencies have been granting personnel security clearances. Bradley Manning was only 19 years old when he enlisted in the U.S. Army but within months he had TS/SCI clearances, and in Iraq he was allowed essentially unmonitored access to classified networks serving both DOD and the State Department despite being disciplined twice.

When he was arrested earlier this year, Manning, at age 22, was still three years too young to rent a car from AVIS.

Is there something wrong with that picture?