Note To Gloating Copyright Holders: Taking Down A Single Source Of Content Doesn't Stop Unauthorized Sharing

No Wonder The Feds Hate Limewire; Terrorist Threat Assessment Leaked Via Limewire

from the so-that-explains-it dept

Tue, Sep 18th 2007 7:45am — Mike Masnick

A few months back, we were a bit surprised at the misplaced anger directed by some Congressional representatives towards file sharing software provider Limewire. There were some outrageous claims about how Limewire represented a threat to national security and how it was all Limewire's fault that stupid government employees had leaked sensitive information. Of course, this was misplaced because it wasn't Limewire's fault that gov't employees were too stupid to configure the software properly. It wasn't Limewire's fault that gov't employees didn't follow rules that forbid them from installing unapproved apps on their machines -- or on transferring sensitive material to personal computers. Instead, it was all blamed on Limewire. It also wasn't entirely clear what sensitive reports had been leaked... but now we know of at least one. Apparently a national security terrorist threat assessment for the city of Chicago was recently available via Limewire. Though, again, the questions shouldn't be about Limewire, but what gov't employee would (a) have Limewire and classified info on the same computer and (b) configure Limewire to allow that classified info to be shared.

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Filed Under: congress, file sharing, national security, p2p
Companies: limewire

14 Comments

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DRE, 18 Sep 2007 @ 8:01am

...Sink Ships
WE should be asking why this inept civil servant left his Limewire connection on, 'cause you aren't going to get everyone to comply with regulation.
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Overcast, 18 Sep 2007 @ 8:17am

Could have been leaked via paper in an envelope, radio waves, telephone, encoded GIF's, shortwave radio, hand signals in a video, code in a web page.....

Is it really the 'medium' that's used to transmit the data or the people using the 'medium' for communication.

Sounds like an excuse to track more peer to peer data to me. That may or may not be a good thing.

The problem is, all too often - government 'monitoring' isn't used for the reasons it's supposed to be used for, and winds up being used to slander political opponents, get back old enemies, or take away more rights.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Sep 2007 @ 8:24am

im just waiting for the RIAA / MPAA, to sue what looks like the NSA for illegally downloading media content.
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Woadan, 18 Sep 2007 @ 8:57am

Let's put some blame on the software developing community. They're the ones that set the defaults to be everything wide open.

Isn't it better to have everything off, or closed, by default and force the end-user to open everything up?

Let's also, however, put some blame on the network admins as well. They should be locking down the PCs much more than they have been.
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xxl3w, 18 Sep 2007 @ 9:02am

Re: Woadan the Pudding eater.
Yea, let's blame everyone but the end user. There's no way it could be the individual's fault. I think you should go back to sleep and give life a shot another day when you have a useful opinion.
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Mike, 18 Sep 2007 @ 9:05am

wtf
The blame is entirely on the network admin for not blocking p2p ports including 1214.
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xxl3w, 18 Sep 2007 @ 9:09am

Re: wtf -- now now now, let's read.
"He also noted that employees at Booz Allen cannot connect to file-sharing networks at work".
Apparently he DID NOT do it at work. Now, let's start putting that blame on the user? Wait, we can blame ISP's for not blocking that port. Then, we can blame the internet for sharing data. THEN we can blame electricity for making it possible. Then....... We can blame bush?
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Sep 2007 @ 9:11am

Looks like the FTA/Booz Allen should expect a lawsuit from the RIAA/MPAA. What ELSE would they have been sharing if not National Security secrets and "illegally" distributed media! Since the MAFIAA can't seem to figure out which IP address or which user on the IP address at the time, I guess they'll have to sue the entire United States Government, the State of Illinois and apparently FOX-News, too!

I'm dizzy from the irony of this farce we accept in our life.
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Killer_Tofu (profile), 18 Sep 2007 @ 9:37am

Re #4 Woadan
You must have not used Limewire before.
You have to choose which folders to share when installing or starting up (do not recall which as it has been a long time since I used Limewire).
Most P2P programs are like that (every single one I ever used for anything was, but do not want to make a sweeping statement), where the user has to select what to share.
Do not pretend to blame others when you do not even know about the programs they are talking about.
Oh wait, maybe you would fit right in there with them since you are apt to blame those with no responsibility.
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Name, 18 Sep 2007 @ 10:28am

The NSA employee should be put in prison for being that dumb.
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BennyBlanco, 18 Sep 2007 @ 10:45am

Just another proud example of how many dumb people are running our country into the ground right now.

I cannot wait for 2009 to get here.
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beefer, 18 Sep 2007 @ 10:53am

anyone that dumb should be put in prison or sterilized, then they stop breeding their genes back into our gene-pool.
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spatrick, 18 Sep 2007 @ 11:58am

Before I retired 5 years ago, I had run a Security Group inside a major telecom company. Spotting the network signature of programs like Limewire should be a trivial issue for any competent Security person.
So it seems quite obvious that besides the lack of security awareness and acceptable use training for Government drones, the Network/Security staff also qualifies as incompetent at worst or as gleefully unaware at best. In either case, the Feds need to get their own house in order before passing more narrow minded security laws.
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RandomThoughts, 18 Sep 2007 @ 2:00pm

Limewire was mentioned in the article exactly twice.

Looks like the authorities are asking who uploaded it, not how they uploaded it.

What was the point of your article?
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