‘Sensitive files’ on file sharing networks
p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- The hoary old issue of ’sensitive files’ on P2P file sharing networks reared its head again during a US House of Representatives committee, yesterday.
It’s “chilling” what the public (that’s us) has available to it, says a US politician.
Now the “the dangers of file-sharing software” are being used to give US politicians an excuse to once again attack P2P technologies.
“I’m planning to introduce a bill,” CBS has Edolphus Towns, a New York Democrat who heads a House oversight committee, saying.
His legislation would, “limit the use of peer-to-peer software on all computer networks operated by the federal government or its contractors”.
In addition, the Federal Trade Commission should investigate whether P2P software developers are violating the law, and the Obama administration should “undertake a national campaign to educate consumers about the dangers of file-sharing software,” Towns said. (In April, Towns’ committee informed the FTC it had reopened an investigation into inadvertent file sharing.)
“As far as I am concerned, the days of self-regulation should be over for the file-sharing industry,” The Register has Towns declaring.
“In the last administration, the Federal Trade Commission took a ’see-no-evil, hear-no-evil’ approach to the file sharing software industry. I hope the new administration is revisiting that approach and I hope to work with them on how to better protect the privacy of consumers.”
The hearing singled out LimeWire with Lime Group chairman Mark Gorton (right), saying “the current version of LimeWire does not share any documents by default,” and many security improvements were added in version 5 of the software — released in December 2008 — that were absent from version 4,” says CBS, going on
Gorton also tried to make a more subtle point: the Gnutella network is an amalgamation of scores of different P2P clients, many of which may have different default settings, and LimeWire shouldn’t be held responsible for someone’s decision to share files using a program written by a different company.
It didn’t work. “It is chilling what the public now has available to it,” Rep. Towns said. “The idea that you can look at the first lady’s information, where she’s going, how she’s getting there, tax records, things of that nature. … we need to get to the bottom of this.”
Bill Foster, an Illinois Democrat who’s, “more technically-inclined than most politicians (he has a doctorate in physics), said the, “nuclear option is to block the Gnutella protocol” on a national basis.
But, the story adds, “Foster acknowledged, that wasn’t likely to work. Another option, he said, would be to create a new version of the Gnutella protocol that allowed only limited clients — that curbed what folders or filetypes could be shared — to connect to it.”
Meanwhile, it’s business as usual on the Light Nets, where all the real action is.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
CBS – File Sharing Leaks Sensitive Government Data, July 29, 2009
The Register – US Congress probes accidental top secret file sharing, July 30, 2009
Light Nets – Cartel-proof P2P indexing site, July 29, 2009
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July 30th, 2009 at 10:46 am
âSensitive filesâ on file sharing networks?
They should be posted on Wikileaks for all to see so that you can’t hide your wrongdoings anymore.
July 30th, 2009 at 11:23 am
That’s pathetic.
Why are you so scared Mr Politician? Are you afraid the public will find out the truth about you and your colleagues and hang your butts out to dry? That’s it isn’t it?
You always try to cover you behinds!
The public will put an end to this, you can’t stop it. The public will deal with you all in good time. You’ll be stuffing your face when the police break down the doors and arrest your corrupt behinds!
Or worse, the public does this themselves. Whom will they mimic when they arrest you? The police. Yup, they will do exactly what the police have done to them. So don’t be surprised if you are on POPs (Public On Patrol) being treated just like “criminals” on COPs.
People have had enough of your hiding and people have had enough of your spineless catering to the corporations. We will NOT go back to sleep!
Be a man and admit you’re corrupt and do something about it, CHANGE! If you change, you’ll get more votes and more support from those you are supposed to represent, THE PEOPLE!
July 30th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Why won’t the post show up? Ridiculous.
If politicians are afraid, then they are doing wrong things and should stop! What is it you always say to the public, if you did nothing wrong then you have nothing to hide? That applies to YOU TOO! The law is not selective, it’s for EVERYONE!
Fess up and change your ways then you won’t see “sensitive files” on P2P. And if you think restricting P2P is going to work you’re really confused. The more you try to hide it the more intriguing it is and the more likely you’re really doing bad things.
What do you think the results will be when people find out what you’re trying to hide? Look at the previous Admin? They are not away scott-free man, their day will come.
Obama, if he’s smart, will instead hop on the p2p and find those files and launch an investigation into what you’re trying to hide!
July 30th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
This is human error. There are some computers which should NOT have file sharing software installed on them. It’s the employee’s responsibility to know — what sensitive information is on the computer — what risks that information is being exposed to. And, if we presume for the moment that an employer is entitled to keep some information confidential, then computers containing that information need to get special handling. You probably shouldn’t surf p0rn on that computer either… (Geez, get a crap second computer for file sharing and p0rn, and keep the sensitive stuff like your tax forms off that machine!!
)
Congress is acting like all cars should have a speed governor of 25 mph because some people screw up and have crashes.
July 30th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
this is bullshit, they know it and we know it.
If anything ’sensitive’ is showing up it’s being deliberately put there in order to garner support
for eliminating P2P. Who didn’t know that this was coming ?
July 30th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Lol what kind of “sensitive files” are on p2p? Oh lets see, The Dark Knight, Public Enemies, etc. Oh No~! p2p’s not gonna go away! You can’t censor the internet no matter how hard you try, no matter how many bills/laws you try to pass! People will always find a way to trump you, and in the end, p2p will still be alive. Don’t fight the digital age – EMBRACE IT!
p2p for life!
July 30th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
That is one paranoid and dumb-ass country.
July 30th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
I find it hilarious they find what the public can see “Chilling.” I find their lack of understanding of what P2P disturbing. I find they themselves dangerous.
July 30th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
I feel with the LimeWire devs. They want to create a new age of content retrieval, and what they get for being successful is a scorning by the congress.
But damn, I hope their users stand up for them. I don’t use LimeWire, but they did play a major role in improving the Gnutella network, and their program is perfectly free software (GPL), so I think they deserve some support!
You know, LimeWire “fixed” their client two years ago – you could also say they crippled it, from the usability side. But they didn’t do it for the congress. They did it to avoid being sued.
In Gnutellaforums I saw a user complain that he can’t save mp3s, because of a missing license. That’s what you get from that forced crippling.
The other parts, not sharing files by default and stuff, were already done before that.
And creating a new crippled version of the Gnutella network is ridiculous, except if congress would be willing to pay for that. And even then people would just use the old version of LimeWire – or patch the new to use the old protocol.
If politicians can’t control their own employees and keep them from sharing sensitive documents, they shouldn’t be allowed to run a country.
July 30th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
” That is one paranoid and dumb-ass country. ”
Which country is that ?
Last time I looked, China and Iran were still top of the heap as far as net censorship goes.
Not that the US is far behind them, but to broadly assert that one country is more paranoid
than another is simply ignoring whats happening everywhere.
And I do mean everywhere.
So when are steak knives going to be banned in the UK ?
July 30th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
UK? That little island with better cam service than internet service? bah.
July 30th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
How is it that most of the people writing comments completely failed to grasp the point of this issue?
Government employees were installing file sharing software on government computers. They shouldn’t have been doing that in the first place, but they were. Some of that software, by default, automatically shared the entire My Documents directory. Or it searched out files of specific types to share. In some cases, this made confidential information available to the public.
And to those who would ask what they have to hide, let’s see you post your real name and address, your credit card details, your income tax information, your private email. What, you don’t want to post all that stuff? Why not? What are you hiding?
While I blame the employees for installing personal software on government computers, I also don’t think any file sharing program should share a single file unless you specifically tell it to.
July 30th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
So basically what you are saying is that:
American government employee’s are the bottom of the IQ list and they don’t have a clue how any software works, especially P2P.
gotcha.
July 30th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
” How is it that most of the people writing comments completely failed to grasp the point of this issue?
Government employees were installing file sharing software on government computers. They shouldnât have been doing that in the first place, but they were. ”
Your absolutely right , and no we didn’t misunderstand the issue.
The problem is PEOPLE not p2p software, and the government is using this issue to further their desire to clamp down on, restrict,
or make illegal P2P software, when the problem isn’t the software at all, as you correctly pointed out.
It’s the buttheads that used it improperly, that THEY HIRED.
July 30th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
psst, Dreddsnik, he’s an American gov employee. He didn’t grasp it.
… low IQ thing
July 30th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
@RW
“And to those who would ask what they have to hide, letâs see you post your real name and address, your credit card details, your income tax information, your private email. What, you donât want to post all that stuff? Why not? What are you hiding?”
I think you’re out to lunch on this one. You think you’re so clever but in reality, you’re suffering from a strawman fallacy. How exactly does keeping your credit card or income tax or real name private on a forum like this compare to covering your ass for human rights abuses or violations of foreign/domestic/international law?
When you have something to hide it is something YOU DID, not your Social Insurance/Security Number. Wake up man, if the government employees made a mistake and a bunch of social security numbers were shared on p2p networks, then they would not refer to it as “sensitive material.”
However, field manuals that explain how to torture someone, illegal in the US, WOULD be classified as “sensitive material” and thus politicians would certainly not want that out. Hence, covering their ass! Another example maybe? How about Bills that allow FBI and NSA to read your email, monitor your phone calls, scan your video/library rentals, financial records, etc.. WITHOUT WARRANT? Maybe that might be something to hide? Huh? Yeah, that’s really the same as someone’s address.
And the “something to hide” was EXACTLY what politicians say to citizens when they pass laws for “safety” that invade privacy. I guess you missed that sarcasm directed at politicians as well.
July 30th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
I’m all for stricter laws. The harsher the punishments get and the more restricted the freedom of the public becomes, the more folks will realize how truly unjust the system has become. Eventually a tipping point will be reached when the public finally stands up as one and says NO MORE! So you see, stricter laws and punishment is actually a good thing.
July 30th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
This type of thing is exactly what caused the police in Japan to start on a vendetta against P2P networks like Winney and Share.
As I have posted before, a police officer took sensitive information about upcoming cases home on a police notebook PC, which he then used to download files off a P2P network, got infected with a virus, and ended up sending the sensitive data over the network.
Similar occurrences like this happened several times in the same deportment, as well as on several SDF (Japan’s self defense force) and government notebook PCs (all of which were not allowed to be used outside of the office, or for personal use).
This prompted a knee-jerk response of the police attacking P2P as “evil” and government officials falling in line with the labels in creating laws against the “illegal” downloading of music/video/and software.
Boy it’s amazing on what some people will stoop to, just because people in their own organization do not know the first thing about security.
Just my two cents
July 30th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
BUt then anyone who opposes them will be terrorists and hidden away on some compound for life.
July 30th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
@Just My Two Cents:
Easy fix, TRAINING! When hired, teach people “this is not my PC/Mac, therefore I cannot install filesharing or anything on it without authorization and it must be job related.”
That’s what my company did when I signed up, it specifically says no P2P or related, but you can install GVim or Firefox or GCC because those are work related.
July 31st, 2009 at 12:09 am
“Easy fix, TRAINING!”
Cool beans!
Lets put these American politicians (whose hands are in the cartels pockets, and vice-versa) in a re-education camp!
I like it!
Robert Rox!
Re-education is the key!
ok, so like who has a few billion to spare to beat the American propaganda machine?
Anyone?
July 31st, 2009 at 1:22 am
If the IT department were doing their job correctly to begin with, nobody would be able to install any software or files that aren’t authorized. While educating employees regarding the rules is obviously still a good idea, it is better that any decisions which may affect security isn’t in their hands in the first place.
July 31st, 2009 at 1:42 am
Oh, so what you are saying is that Obama’s secret safe house and helicopter plans and motorcade info was a failing of the morons hired and not the p2p software.
Ah
Shocking.
July 31st, 2009 at 1:43 am
@RW:
How do you get a few billion dollars? For what, re-education camp? Um no that’s called send the IT person to ensure people do not have stuff on their machines and remind them, make them sign a waiver, that they know not to install stuff like that.
You really think that will cost billions? Or even millions? I don’t think so.
July 31st, 2009 at 1:45 am
You are not fighting dumb-ass employees here with very low IQ’s. On the contrary, you are fighting a propaganda machine who will twist the truth and hide the reality of the situation.
So yes. I stand by what I said.
July 31st, 2009 at 7:12 am
“And to those who would ask what they have to hide, letâs see you post your real name and address, your credit card details, your income tax information, your private email. What, you donât want to post all that stuff? Why not? What are you hiding?”
Heh, you do know that it is indeed the politicians who trot out the old “nothing to hide” bullshit, don’t you? The POINT was to hold them to their own brainless ideology, and you totally missed it. We are simply applying exactly what they said to THEM, not to us. Why not? Seems fair to me, don’t you think? Or are you saying that they should be exempt?
You don’t really know what you’re saying do you? I think you completely got the wrong end of the stick there bud.
July 31st, 2009 at 8:17 am
It’s called floating a trial ballon. See how much you get flack over it. If the heat isn’t too bad you introduce legislation to enact it.
July 31st, 2009 at 11:41 am
” Oh, so what you are saying is that Obamaâs secret safe house and helicopter plans and motorcade info was a failing of the morons hired and not the p2p software. ”
Yes. Precisely.
Software does only what people tell it to do.
July 31st, 2009 at 12:22 pm
That is what I was trying to get across with that comment
August 2nd, 2009 at 4:19 am
What will this do for p2p, absolutely nothing. The networks will continue to prosper.