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Comments on news posted 2007-08-14 16:05:54: Last month, Congress started targeting p2p as a national security threat because government employees weren't bright enough to avoid sharing folders with confidential material. ..
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commodog
Premium
join:2000-02-03
Oxnard, CA
1 edit | few things to point out First of all, Wesley Clark is not a Govt Employee.
He is a retired General who ran for office and failed and is now a paid consultant. He was hired for who he knows and who he is/was, not what he knows. He knows money; and he knows who to ask to get it. Its the way the system works, Generals retire and become consultants and sell shit back to the Generals who they groomed to take their place.
Second, there are blocks and safeguards in place on most govt networks for P2P, porn, etc. But this report was based on info from years ago when Napster was in court and Kazaa was just starting out.
Third, The Govt is made up of about 30-40% contractors. So the problem is not just with Govt Employees. The problem is with users who don't follow the rules, circumvent policies and procedures and do whatever the hell they want, because they think they know how. As you all know, there is always a way around things and no system can hold you back from being an idiot if you want to be. Just like Wesley Clark. | |
| | Laurie
join:2007-07-08
Middle Village, NY
| Re: few things to point out Why do you assume anyone who doesn't see things your way is an "idiot"? Gen. Clark is brilliant. The man was a Rhodes Scholar, for crying out loud. He has one of the most intelligent minds any of us has ever known. Everyone calling him a "boob" and an "idiot" simply because they surmise he must want to spoil their fun needs to grow up a bit. Quite a bit, actually. So why can't we just dispense with the name-calling, stick to the issues and discuss it like rational, intelligent adults? | |
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tc1uscg
join:2005-03-09
Saint Clair Shores, MI
| Finger pointed at the wrong spot Seems to me, Govt employees are a "threat" to national security. That's like saying, guns kill people, not people with guns kill people.. Oh well, the General needs to come to terms with just who's the threat. Think he's in the white house.  | |
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TechieZero
Tools Are Using Me
Premium
join:2002-01-25
Wesley Chapel, FL |  Wesley Clark is a National Boob
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| a98308349823
join:2007-07-03
Portsmouth, NH
| packets Government regulation for packets? LOL.
That is like saying only white people are allowed to make cell phone calls. How can you tell the race of the person?
A packet is a packet. Doesnt matter where it goes or what it is. Sure you can traffic shape normal packets but try and regulate them and they will be encrypted packets. | |
| | a98308349823
join:2007-07-03
Portsmouth, NH | Re: packets sorry, mistake. | |
| | | a98308349823
join:2007-07-03
Portsmouth, NH | Re: packets ah, no it worked. i thought i posted this as a new topic somewhere, but it is attached to this story. Heh, ignore me. | |
| bathurst
join:2005-05-29
Davis, CA
| Gostbuster's Theme I don't read news (it's too depressing), but has anyone the puzzling details? When this first appeared in the news, a well-known senator was appalled that White House staff (I think) had been doing this. I thought he was demanding P2P software be banned (but, of course, I couldn't believe my ears).
The first thing I asked myself was how could a secure LAN's NIDS miss a P2P program being used? Not possible; so they can't be using them at work. Now, it's reasonable for everyone to want to evacuate Washington, DC, by sundown; but are our bureaucrats taking classified documents home on their laptops? Will our Secret Service prevent classified paper documents from being removed in a brief case, but allow a laptop to pass unchecked? (These people did sign a secrecy agreement.)
Why wouldn't our bureaucrats use highly encrypted e-mail from home? Are they aware of the illegalities and want no paper trail? The less insidious option is more frightening: they're transferring documents at work on a Microsoft LAN, and can't at home. What can I use? (Ghostbusters' Theme.) Ah, I'll use the same program I've always used to share copyrighted music!
Now, having used FidoNet in my time, I have a warm place in my heart for P2P; but the popular versions really are very sloppy. It must be depressing to secure your Mac for banking, then have your teen-aged daughter put a 'LimeWire' application on her account. However, Phil Zimmerman's additions to P2P SIP phones probably make conversations more secure than over a wall phone, these days.
The problem that remains is the unencrypted ip address. But our country's leaders give this away whenever they visit their favorite pornographic websites. So, what's the real problem here? P2P, for sharing copyrighted music between iPods, has to be 'hardened' to meet national security standards?
BTW, It was Senator Dod, I think, (someone correct me here) who made the outlandish denunciation of P2P. Wesley Clark is a very bright fellow and could simply have been chosen because he solved a similar problem elsewhere, and because his security classification may give him access to White House documents. Do you think the Air Force listens to music? Even if his affiliation with Tiversa proves a conflict of interest, I don't see Wesley Clark as the problem.
PS. Drive manufacturers went to the trouble of installing a chip that strips all the data to government standards, but the only program (I know of) that accesses it was written for DOS. Do you think we have a larger problem here? | |
| 
latinjum
@mchsi.com
| Did you watch the hearing? First, Clark disclosed to the committee, before he testified, his relationship with Tiversa. Second, how many of you oh-so-smart posters here actually watched the hearing and are commenting on what you personally know Clark and others, on both sides of this issue, had to say at the hearing, and are basing your comments on what you think the validity of the arguments on both sides were? | |
| Kiwi
Premium
join:2003-05-26
USA | This has to be more hype The Federal systems are locked down, someone is hunting for something that didn't really happen. Kinda like the other stories the media completly screwed up. | |
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riprus
@aol.com | Wussley Clark  Clark has been a National Security Risk since his butt-sucking days @ WP | |
| | Kiwi
Premium
join:2003-05-26
USA | Re: Wussley Clark I should have read ALL the articles as this has little to do with P2P on federal systems, just another stupid person thinking that the know everything about nothing. | |
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