One gadget was bought at a military auction, and the vendor said they had no idea it carried classified data. Because the sensitive data was housed on a memory card, the US military could have avoided the danger by simply removing or destroying the cards before selling them.
“Because we have not reviewed the information contained on the devices,” Defense Department press secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder told the Times. “The department requests that any devices suspicious thought to contain personally identifiable information be returned for further analysis.”
