RSSPentagon Will Allow Troops Broad Access to Social-Media Sites
Feb 26
news, security insecure news, news, Pentagon, US DoD No Comments
This is a mistake. The people who truly oversee the gates should have fought harder to not only keep the ban, but to block more sites. The decision-makers simply do not understand what is going on and are trying to be people-pleasers. Security should trump this type of access. If you need the access, request it, go to a less secure network, go to a public network even, but do not drop the security standards across the board!
Pentagon Will Allow Troops Broad Access to Social-Media Sites
February 27, 2010, 12:02 AM EST
By Tony Capaccio
Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) — The Pentagon reversed a directive that has blocked access from U.S. military computers to about 10 social-networking sites, such as YouTube and MySpace.
Troops will have unrestricted access to these and other sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, if security precautions are applied and ethical guidelines are followed, Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn said yesterday in announcing the new policy.
The military’s unclassified Internet gateway “shall be configured to provide access to Internet-based capabilities,” he said in a nine-page policy memo.
“Official uses of Internet-based capabilities are permitted,” Lynn said. Postings should include a disclaimer “when personal opinions are expressed.”
Lynn’s directive applies to all military computers used by troops ranging from the squad level in combat zone to a base in the U.S.
The previous restrictions were designed to ensure the security of military computers and preserve the use of bandwidth.
The May 2007 directive was reversed because “we’ve become smarter,” Pentagon Deputy Chief Information Officer David Wennergren told reporters. “We realized that the right thing to do was work with the companies to make sure they were doing good security practices and to work with our employees to make sure they were practicing good security hygiene.”
Precautions
Commanders “shall continue to defend against malicious activity affecting Defense networks and take immediate actions as required to safeguard missions, such as temporarily limiting access to the Internet to preserve operations security or address bandwidth constraints,” Lynn said.
Commanders also should continue to deny access to sites engaging in pornography, hate-crimes or gambling, Lynn said in the policy memo.
Admiral James Stavridis, the supreme allied commander of NATO, is one of the scores of military officers and officials who have an account with Facebook or other social networks.
The Pentagon’s Web site lists all major military users of privately held, Palo Alto, California-based Facebook Inc.
–Editors: Don Frederick, Robin Meszoly
-0- Feb/27/2010 05:00 GMT
To contact the reporters on this story: Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jim Kirk in Washington at jkirk12@bloomberg.net.
