var json_comments = new Array("
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hungryhomer
July 30, 2009 3:31 PM
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I think this is that \"government transparency\" Obama was talking aobut.

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2 replies
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ironchef
July 30, 2009 4:14 PM
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@hungryhomer: It's probably from GWB's lack of understanding of the \"Internets\"

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Applyin'Sunscreen_GitEmSteveDave
July 30, 2009 3:33 PM
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Don't share photos of Mafia hit men? Does that mean I have to close the family album I have on Photobucket? Sometimes being from NJ stinks.

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6 replies
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BenderRodriguez
July 30, 2009 4:19 PM
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@Applyin'Sunscreen_GitEmSteveDave:
You should move south. It doesn't smell quite so bad down here as long as the wind isn't blowing from the west.

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Applyin'Sunscreen_GitEmSteveDave
July 30, 2009 6:43 PM
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@BenderRodriguez: I'm in Monmouth County. The smell only gets bad here between Thurdsday and Sunday from June to September. The smell of Drakkar Noir is choking. Damn Bennys.

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BenderRodriguez
July 31, 2009 6:31 PM
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@Applyin'Sunscreen_GitEmSteveDave: Camden County here. That's what I meant about the wind blowing from the west. You know, from Philly and Camden. You would think Camden would smell like tomato soup, but it realy doesn't.

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cmdrsass
July 30, 2009 3:46 PM
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@Applyin'Sunscreen_GitEmSteveDave: well, the smell decreases the further away you get ...

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MostlyHarmless
July 30, 2009 3:34 PM
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@Applyin'Sunscreen_GitEmSteveDave: Basically, Facebook will block all albums/photos involving users from NJ.

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G.O.B.: Come on!
July 30, 2009 3:43 PM
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Why government I.T. doesn't lock down issued PCs is fucking ridiculous. Microsoft's own (free) SteadyState or DeepFreeze, incompetent morons. USE IT. There's no reason why a regular user would need the admin rights with which they use to install compromising crapware like Limewire.

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3 replies
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bohemian
July 30, 2009 4:18 PM
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@G.O.B.: Come on!: Most govt. agencies do or are supposed to encrypt and lock down any computer used or issued. Why anyone had the ability to install a peer to peer tool on a government computer is beyond me. Either the employee cracked the security and administrative settings or someone in IT for that agency needs to be fired.

You are better off running downloads and any peer to peer things on a dedicated computer, preferably isolated from your other computers.

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Veeber
July 30, 2009 4:15 PM
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@G.O.B.: Come on!: Also a lot of people are able to get exemptions for one reason or another. However, a good monitoring policy should make up for that. I think a number of the ones recently have been contractors. My company has a mandatory lockdown and prohibits the use of file sharing apps, but I can see some smaller shops or non IT based shops not thinking through the ramifications.

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joshuadavis
July 30, 2009 3:47 PM
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@G.O.B.: Come on!: Most government IT does lock down PCs, but then maybe friendly administrators will install said software without proper authorization as a favor. If this software is banned then a tech would be violating policy.

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tmlfan81
July 30, 2009 3:43 PM
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How do people get access to your \"entire\" drive using P2P? I thought you were only downloading the file and uploading (reseeding) back what you collected so other people could more users could access the files. Is there some backdoor through uTorrent or Transmission that I'm missing?

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8 replies
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JRules
July 30, 2009 4:04 PM
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@tmlfan81:
This is not torrents, this is using Kazaa or some other similar thing, that shares folders with other users to download from.

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tmlfan81
July 30, 2009 4:08 PM
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Thank you all for making the distinction between P2P clients and Torrents.


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Real Cheese Flavor
July 30, 2009 3:59 PM
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@tmlfan81: I'm assuming that they're talking about gnutella-based P2P programs like Limewire here where you do actually share folders on a \"network\" and allow anyone to search and grab things from it.

With BitTorrent you're only downloading and uploading the specific file or files that are in the torrent.

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G.O.B.: Come on!
July 30, 2009 3:58 PM
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@tmlfan81: This doesn't have to do with torrents. With torrents, you only share what you've actually downloaded through a torrent.

This has to do with crappy P2P like Gnutella clients (Acquisition on Mac, Cabos on PC, etc.) in which you specify shared folders for others to download from. Some people are too lazy to navigate/create a shared folder that is isolated from the rest of their drive, so they select the ENTIRE drive to share. No backdoor here, just retarded P2P habits.

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Applyin'Sunscreen_GitEmSteveDave
July 30, 2009 3:58 PM
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@tmlfan81: A lot of the Gnu clients will check your drive for files to share, and if it sees a folder with an shareable file, shares it. So the whole My documents folder, in reality. I always share a subfolder of my library, mostly of Monty Python sketches/songs, as You never see John Cleese at Senate hearings like you do Lars.

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OggJoshua
July 30, 2009 4:48 PM
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@Applyin'Sunscreen_GitEmSteveDave: You must mean \"Gnutella clients\" rather than \"Gnu clients\". Gnutella is a file sharing network; GNU is the technical foundation of Linux, as well as a type of open source software license.

Apologies for the pedantry. I just don't want GNU's good name sullied by tawdry mafia-hitman-photo-and-Python-sketch-sharing scandal.

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MostlyHarmless
July 30, 2009 3:45 PM
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@tmlfan81: You basically specify \"share folders\" that people can look through. Some people either share the whole goddamn drive, or they share a bit too much.

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angryneo
July 30, 2009 3:49 PM
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Gov't Employee Fail?


*sigh*

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ironchef
July 30, 2009 4:12 PM
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You'll be amazed how many people leave their filesharing on.

I was able to see 10 laptop contents once while staying at a hotel. They had free wifi. Naturally, so was their filesharing.

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mac-phisto
July 30, 2009 4:12 PM
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this may seem obvious, but less obvious is how malware can sometimes open a backdoor & dump your files without your knowledge. i'm thinking that was the case in at least one of these examples.

so yeah, don't share your whole hard drive, but it also might be a good idea to be aware of ways to shut down potential attacks on your network before they happen.

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TakingItSeriously is a Technopile
July 30, 2009 4:19 PM
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There are several ways around standard NTFS permissions restrictions. This is probably a field agent that had Admin access to his system (legitimate or not).


No Administrator who values their position would install ANY P2P software on a users computer as a \"favor\". That's a CEM big time. I would have never done it for any friend I have ever had when I was in IT.

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Xay
July 30, 2009 4:35 PM
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I can't even watch a YouTube video or install Firefox on my state government computer, but federal employees have been installing P2P software?

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2 replies
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korybing
July 30, 2009 4:57 PM
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@xay: Hell, I can't watch Youtube, update to Firefox 3, or go to any site with the word \"blog\" in the URL at my non-government job computer. Why on earth were these programs allowed to begin with? At the very least I would like to keep my work computer and my personal computer separate.

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pecan 3.14159265
July 30, 2009 4:37 PM
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@xay: That's what I'm wondering. I can't install anything or watch videos of any kind, not even on CNN.

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merist
July 30, 2009 4:36 PM
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\"Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY) plans to introduce a bill banning all filesharing software from government employees'\"

Considering that ALL modern operating systems provide file sharing software automatically, this seems like a pretty stupid and short sighted bill.

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JustinSane07
July 30, 2009 4:37 PM
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I remember back in the days of Kazaa and finding some dope that shared C:\\. It was always fun looking at their personal info, maybe some \"private\" photos or even bank statements. I never did anything with, but sometimes I'd send a message to the person that they're stupid and need to unshare that shit.

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MrDo
July 30, 2009 4:39 PM
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I found the no fly list a few years back and brought it to the attention of a friend who worked at FBI who didn't seem to think it was that big of a deal. It was in a file directory on a either Kazaa or some other P2P for a security admin at an airline. He had shared his entire C drive.

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I Love New Jersey
July 30, 2009 4:56 PM
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This just confirms my lack of competence in the federal government.

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2 replies
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Pink Puppet
July 30, 2009 6:20 PM
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@I Love New Jersey: The English language isn't getting along with you very well today, is it?

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Pink Puppet
July 30, 2009 10:21 PM
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@Trai_Dep: My faith in humanity is already dwindling at an alarming rate, so I thought to extend the benefit of the doubt.

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trujunglist
July 30, 2009 6:19 PM
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What the fuck? What company/institution allows filesharing software on their computers? I have admin access on my computer and if I were to do that, I'd be strung up and then fired... at by a firing squad of the higher ups.

Jesus christ, what a bunch of fucking morons.

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1 replies
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sonneillon
July 30, 2009 6:35 PM
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@trujunglist: A lot of contractors with security clearance are just handed a laptop, of course it's for work purposes but if they have physical access to it all the time they can do whatever they want with it. I imagine it's some dumbass from Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed or the like and not someone that is directly a government employee.

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Trai_Dep
July 30, 2009 6:56 PM
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I'm unsure if stupidity this profound can be defeated by any laws, no matter how well-meaning.
Although, I hope whatever they do with gov't employees, they also make it so the far more common, and serious, privacy breeches by private companies are harshly punished.

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oneandone
July 30, 2009 10:28 PM
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@Trai_Dep: Absolutely. I have a lot of respect for the contractors I work with, but at some agencies they outnumber the federal employees and it's hard to keep track of all their work situations.

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HogwartsAlum
July 30, 2009 10:25 PM
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I don't use file-sharing things because I don't know how they work. I don't think I'd be able to install it at work anyway; my IT man would kill me.

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oneandone
July 30, 2009 10:26 PM
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All of the above have been accidentally leaked over file-sharing networks from work computers by government employees or their families.


This is a small but important point: the problem may not be with work computers. Some employees & contractors may have taken work home and had the filesharing software there.


It's not uncommon for govt employees to take work home. Whether or not they should is another discussion. But locking down work computers 100% won't solve the problem.

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coren
July 31, 2009 1:14 AM
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There is next to 0 reason that a government employee should have such a thing on their work computer.

Nevermind that a heavy percentage of P2P use is for copyright infringement (Not that I'm one to talk about that!) but these are their work computers. For working on. And doing work. Not for snagging the new Jonas Brothers album.

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