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P2P Leaks Surprises
kilian.cavalotti writes "A new Web log is posting what it purports are pictures, documents and letters from U.S. soldiers and military bases in Iraq and elsewhere--all of which the site's operator claims to have downloaded from peer-to-peer networks such as Gnutella.
The "See What You Share" site has been online for a week and has published photos ranging from a crashed military jet to a screenshot of a spreadsheet file that appears to include names, addresses and telephone numbers of marines. The site's operator, a 30-year-old named Rick Wallace, wrote in a blog posting that he is trying to help the military understand how serious a security risk unmonitored peer-to-peer file sharing can be."
I don't care what the military shares, but I surely want to see more of her... Redheads.... *drool* ;-)
Glen Breakwater-
As a former member of our armed forces, and an avid technophile as well as outspoken supporter of freedom in all its forms, I have a question:
What exactly are you advocating?
It sounds an awful lot like you're complaining, but you have absolutely no idea how to solve the problem you've raised. This is not constructive...it is merely whining. Do you want to ban P2P services? Do you want to attempt to make yet more copy protection systems? Or are you doing what Michael Moore does and complaining about a situation while having no solution whatsoever?
As for my view: it is the price of freedom. If you don't want Secret/NOFORN documents distributed on the web, then don't hand them out to people! Make sure the only machines that have them are on SIPRNET and take out the damn floppy and zip disk drives.
My position: people are stupid, and until we decide to take real measures to protect secret data (i.e. not providing removable media for secret computers), we'll get burned. A nation at war? Yes, I went to Iraq three times in the past three years. But don't blame the soldiers, or the P2P programs. Blame the idiots that make the information available and the idiots who build the computers and set IT policy for the DoD.
Peer to peer filesharing is NOT a security risk. The lack of a comprehensive security program within our military is a security risk.
Regards,
The problem is that the website author emphasizes that "Technology often outruns legislation. So is the case with Peer 2 Peer networks." He seems to assume that P2P should be legislated against. However, this is a security issue, not an issue specific to P2P systems. Education and other controls should be used to minimize this problem. The military would never let Joe Soldier run a rogue server, why would they let them run any old P2P app on a system with classified information? See, P2P Problem or Security Issue?.
... where are the other "raunchy" photos?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
First off, if classified info got to a P2P network, then there was a security breach BEFORE it got there. The p2p network is not the problem.
Second, if the info isn't classified, why shouldn't it be on p2p? If a jet crashed and there's a picture, and its not classified info, then there's nothing wrong with it being public information, because it IS public information.
Moo.
You are correct...there is NIPRNET (public internet) and SIPRNET (an entirely seperate, secret and very large network for military). The problem is that sometimes presentation computers are NIPRNET, and sometimes you have to give secret briefs. Or sometimes someone doesn't have SIPRNET set up correctly (its an involved process), so some idiot copies secret files to a floppy. As I said above in my email: SIPRNET computers shouldn't have floppies or zip. No removable media. Oh, and while youre at it, can we ditch all the MS contracts too, and move to something secure?
This is the case all over, and I got tired of it when I was in the military...the security is not where it should be an no one cares.
From the 'Why this site exists' section of his site:
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. Shocked at my discovery, I notified an agency on a nearby military installation. When nothing happened, I notified another agency. I continued this course because no action was taken and for a nation at war, I was concerned for the safety of our soldiers.
So it seems, he DID tell those who can do something about it, and that nothing is getting done.
Finally a slashdot article I can comment on knowledgably.
I'm an officer in the US Army and on a casual glance through the file list there's nothing on there that's classified. You can look up most of these manuals on google.
Here's a site that lists a couple: US Army Fields Manuals Not hugely helpful unless you have training and equipment, but I guess if I were a (bored) terrorist, I'd read em.
Thanks for COTFU (clicking on the f'ing url) where he clearly details how he found documents and immediately contacted the appropriate branches of service and/or military bases.
They did NOTHING. So he posted self-censored documents to shame them into fixing the problem.
I have no problem with that.
"Oh, you hate your job? There's a support group for that, it's called everyone, they meet at the bar."
What I find really funny is just what a threat a paranoid public is to liberty and freedom of all Americans.
I'm frankly somewhat comforted by the fact that we have pictures coming out of Iraq that have not been filtered through the military censors and government spin doctors. I think it's good that we find out about Abu Ghraib. There is a fine line between keeping information secret to promote security and keeping information secret to deny culpability.
You can't put the genie back in the bottle: people want digital cameras, internets and camera phones. People will take pictures of things and share them with others. For the most part, I think more is gained than more is lost. The worst thing that can happen is for people to lose sight of what their government and military are doing. Are some images disturbing? Yes. Do they force us to uncomfortable conclusions about our government? Probably. But what is the alternative: to go on as if such things simply didn't happen? I hope we are braver than that.
There is much pleasure to be gained in useless knowledge.
The guy is stupid. Not only does he not know anything about the US military or the regular GI do with their spare times. I do not know if those list are real or fake but the image is nothing to worry about. Most enlisted don't know jack about what the higher echelon is doing until the finial phase. Case in point: My friend got a notice to ship out. He had a one-day notice. No one on the ship except the Captain and his XO know in advance of what was going on. My friend doesn't even know when he will come back. It wasn't a special mission or anything. In fact when he got back home, he told us that they just ran around in circle for ten days doing nothing. This is just a small example of how the military works. The US military don't think like regular civilian.
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On the pictures issue, if you go to any gun or military website forum, you will see a lot of pictures that were taken by GIs all over the world, from combats to RR. There are in fact millions of pictures floating around websites that show those kinds of pictures. You don't need P2P to find out. GIs have their own website, units have their website, and God know how many other military related website on the web that show those kind of pictures.
Here is an unit with their website and images. Some of the pictures are from Iraq. I found some of them enjoyable.
http://www.strykernews.com/gallery/ou