File Sharing Leaks Sensitive Federal Data, Lawmakers Are Told

[Dover]

File Sharing Leaks Sensitive Federal Data, Lawmakers Are Told

By Brian Krebs and Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writers


The indiscriminate use of a popular online data-sharing technology has led to the disclosure of sensitive government and personal information -- including FBI surveillance photos of a Mafia hit man, lists of people with HIV, and motorcade routes and safe-house locations for then-first lady Laura Bush, a congressional panel was told on Wednesday.

The information is often exposed inadvertently by people who download the technology to share music or other files, not realizing that the "peer-to-peer" software also makes the contents of their computers available to other users, experts said.

The issue is so pressing that the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), said he would introduce a bill to ban such software from all government and contractor computers and networks...cont'd

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/29/AR2009072902273.html

[juno jones]

1. If these people took reasonable care

and turned off file sharing, incidence of this would be lessened. It's in the fucking options panel, fools.

The indiscriminate use of a popular online data-sharing technology has led to the disclosure of sensitive government and personal information -- including FBI surveillance photos of a Mafia hit man, lists of people with HIV, and motorcade routes and safe-house locations for then-first lady Laura Bush, a congressional panel was told on Wednesday.
The information is often exposed inadvertently by people who download the technology to share music or other files, not realizing that the "peer-to-peer" software also makes the contents of their computers available to other users, experts said..

The people who should know better who don't take proper precautions is the stuff of techie legend.

[Confusious]

2. Just the corporations lying again

They can't stamp it out, so they tell congress that sensitive info is being leaked through it, so they can get congress to ban it.

SOP

They can pry Azureus from my cold dead computer, which will will be in my cold, dead hands.