So the company I work for are quite strict regarding software security. We're not allowed to use usb devices on pc's that are connected to the production network. There's some Department of Defense script that runs periodically. If a usb device happens to be connected to a pc when this script is running it supposedly kills the flash drive.

In my mind at worst it kills the file system in which case a quick run of FDISK should be able to sort this out.

However I'm told that the device is completely irrecoverable. 

1) Is this true? Are there scripts that do this and how does it work

2) If it does do this, is there a way to recover the device?