Essential Computer Security

There have been a variety of privacy and confidentiality breaches on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks recently. Individuals have been able to gain unauthorized access to medical records, social security numbers, confidential FBI files, the plans for President Obama’s new Marine One helicopter, and the location of a safe house to be used by President Obama and his family in the case of an emergency. And that is just on Limewire.

Congressman Edolphus Towns, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, thinks enough is enough. He is quoted as saying “the days of self-regulation should be over for the file-sharing industry” and has suggested that the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) increase their oversight and regulation of the file sharing industry and put some safeguards in place.

I think the congressman is misguided. The P2P networks, whether Limewire or others, may or may not be secure. But, as it relates to the government the problem isn’t whether or not the P2P networks should have tighter security. The problem is that none of the data that was breached had any business being accessible from outside of the government agency it pertains to, especially via P2P file sharing.

I would say that the employees and directors of the federal agencies in question should read 4 Steps to Secure Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Networking to learn some of the do’s and don’t of file sharing security. But, I think that Congressman Towns’ idea is even better. He is proposing legislation to ban the use of P2P file sharing networks from within government agencies.

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