Online security and p2p
p2pnet.net News:- “Many people obtain P2P software so they can download music or movies” and worse, “A large number of those people do not have any idea what they are sharing,” says Glen on his See What You Share on P2P site, continuing:
“A few months ago, I downloaded some military briefings from the Gnutella Network. The briefings were zipped and the file contained 21 documents with classifications ranging from For Official Use Only to Secret/NO FORN …..”
It’s a given that p2p apps can be used for grabbing a lot more than simply music and movies and people responsible for safeguarding data that could end up on the p2p networks are infamously careless. But how serious is the danger of someone accidentally downloading ‘explosive’ material?
A while back, when a US government staff group experimented with Kazaa’s Find More from Same User feature, among other ‘personal’ files they came up with:
- Military information on chemical warfare
- Correspondence from the office of a state senator to constituents
- Internal correspondence on state political organization
- Sensitive business correspondence, including memos on board of directors decision making
- Navy medical records
They were preparing a report for reps Tom Davis and Henry Waxman, chairman and ranking member of the Committee on Government Reform.
Then, efforts to “battle computer-network and Internet attacks by hackers and other cyber-criminals suffer from a lack of coordination, poor communication and a failure to set priorities,” says The Washington Post here.
In March, senator Orrin ‘Terminator’ Hatch of INDUCE fame was ‘mortified‘ when more than 100 of his computer files were “improperly accessed and transmitted outside the Senate”.
Could they eventually have turned up online where they might have been accessed via one or other of the commercial or indie p2p apps, as per Glen’s fears?
See What You Share on P2P focuses on the Gnutella network.
Slyck’s Tom Mennecke says here that BearShare and LimeWire, “the two main forces behind Gnutella,” are “acutely aware of the situation” and are “actively working to resolve it”.
BearShare has ‘locks’ on the ‘C:’ and ‘Program Files’ directories, “preventing any accidental sharing,” says Mennecke, adding:
“While this may seem like an urgent issue, there is much more smoke than there is fire. With more vigilance on the part of individuals, P2P developers, and sites like SeeWhatYouShare.com, this is a problem that will eventually correct itself.”
August 1st, 2004 at 9:05 am
Instead of being shocked, I happen to think that there might be some benefits to this. Through P2P, I was able to download some government and military information that I was not able to find anywhere else, such as CIA manuals, military reports, and other classified information. P2P makes a great addition to websites like The Memory Hole and other free-speech sites, as well as anarchist sites (which frequently get forcefully shut down). Some of these documents could have been faked, but still, they make for interesting reading.
Governments in general keep far too many secrets from their citizens, and in the USA at least, it keeps getting worse. Although it’s certainly a tragedy when a person’s personal information mistakenly becomes accessible online, when it comes to government coverups, P2P has the potential to be as effective as the Freedom of Information Act.
March 16th, 2005 at 4:10 am
How has it corrected itself?