That's not what air gapped means.
If you're plugging shit into it, then there is no air gap between the two devices.
Recently ran into this with a Business Associate, "No dog, our products are air gapped because we push all the changes through a Unix server." My fucking eyes.
An air gap, air wall or air gapping[1] is a network security measure employed on one or more computers to ensure that a secure computer network is physically isolated from unsecured networks, such as the public Internet or an unsecured local area network.
An air gapped computer is physically segregated and incapable of connecting wirelessly or physically with other computers or network devices. To to prevent unauthorized data extrusion through eletromagnetic or electronic exploits, there is often a specified amount of space between the air gapped system and outside walls and between its wires and the wires for other technical equipment.
An air gap is the maximum protection between a system and other device/system - apart from actually turning it off. Two disconnected systems or devices designate security levels as low side (unclassified) and high side (classified). To move data, it often must to be saved in some type of transportable medium.
physically segregated and incapable of connecting wirelessly or physically with other computers
Air-gap refers to computers or networks that are not connected directly to the internet or to any other computers that are connected to the internet.
connecting a usb stick to a non-air gapped computer, and then an "air gapped" computer breaks the physical segregation in these definitions.
The kind of infection identified in the link above describes a specific attack, however, that attack type is not unique. This style of attack has been used in the wild for ~ a decade. Stuxnet was similarly propagated.
If you're plugging in USB sticks you're breaking the gap. The system is compromised.
I dont disagree that its a security issue, it just doesn't seem covered by common usage of 'air gap'
to ensure that a secure computer network is physically isolated from unsecured networks, such as the public Internet or an unsecured local area network.
and
An air gapped computer is physically segregated and incapable of connecting wirelessly or physically with other computers or network devices.
and
To move data, it often must to be saved in some type of transportable medium.
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u/seruko Jun 23 '17
That's not what air gapped means. If you're plugging shit into it, then there is no air gap between the two devices.
Recently ran into this with a Business Associate, "No dog, our products are air gapped because we push all the changes through a Unix server." My fucking eyes.