DoD Blocking Access To Techdirt Because It's About 'Computers And Internet'?
from the say-what-now dept
Sent in by an anonymous person in the Defense Department is the notice that they were unable to read our recent story about customs and border patrol harassing Wikileaks volunteer Jacob Appelbaum as he flew into Seattle from a vacation in Iceland. What struck me, however, was the hilarious wording explaining the block:This Page Cannot Be DisplayedAs the reader notes: "Who'd have thought that "Computers and Internet" would be banned when they give me one, and an Internet connection, to work with?" Nice to see that the DoD is so concerned that DoD workers see what their own government is up to.
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Based on DOD access policies, access to this web site ( https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110112/16054412641/customs-hamfisted-attempts-to-intimidate-wikileaks-volunteers.shtml ) has been blocked because the web category "Computers and Internet" is not allowed, your IP address and username have been recorded and forwarded to your IA staff for review.
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Filed Under: blocks, defense department, denial
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Famous or Infamous?
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The defense department is huge ...
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Re: The defense department is huge ...
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Actually, I believe this is the standard message a particular product the DoD likes using. I've seen it many times myself, and laugh each time (for the record, part of my job description is keeping up-to-date with "Computers and Internet", and that category is kinda stupid to block anyway since you are on a computer and accessing the internet to begin with.) I wouldn't expect much from it. If someone out there is watching my watching TechDirt, then they have more free-time at work than I do...
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Certainly didn't say that, as it isn't true for me (I can access all of Techdirt with no problem what-so-ever.) However, I can only hang my head at what others within DoD/Government are doing. I believe that Sun Tsu said it best that in order to fight an enemy, you have to know the enemy. Anyone within DoD's computer security groups have to have full access to everything their enemies have, otherwise they cannot do their job effectively.
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Every company in the Army atleast is supposed to have an Information Assurance Security Officer.
Way it works is each computer on a DoD network has someone that is responsible for it. When I was IASO I was responsible for about 32 computers throughout the battalion.
Basically we are computer janitors, we insure that the latest windows updates are ran and we're the ones that can reset passwords.
Within the control panel where we select "Yes we did this" you can receive notices of what computers attempted to access whatever blocked entity, what user was logged in, etc.
Most IASO's just click the box to make it go away unless it's repeated bullshit (Really, he was up here at 9pm attempting to look at porn for how long?) in which case we usually just talk to the 1st Sergeant and Company Commander and let them take care of it.
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The message probably should have said something like, "you were attempting to access a page that has been flagged and cannot be seen," with the "computers and internet" being an internal organization mechanism not intended to be relayed to the user.
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Hmmmm
2012 is an election year, is it not?
Since Obama has definitely not done well...let us all spreadthe word, and do a write in campaign.
"Mike Masnick --- President"
I am sorry, but there is NO way that Mike could be a Worse President than some we've had, and he seems to be interested in the issues that I AM worried about.
God only knows what would happen to him under the pressure cooker of Presidential office.
But we can always hope :D
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Re: Hmmmm
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I'm not holding my breath.
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My theory is that
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Very interesting
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Re: Very interesting
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My thought too.
Mike, maybe change "wikileaks" to "defense-contractors" in the story URLs?
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A recent article on Ars Technica ran afoul of this as well.
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not quite...
On a related hilarious note..Oracle's site (which we use quite a bit) gets blocked from time to time as being "freeware"
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Re: not quite...
To me it just shows how little such software actually takes the needs of the end user into account. If I was writing software to block websites then 'informing the user why' would be pretty damn high up the list of things to get right.
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Whoever submitted this must have been a new hire though, these messages are COMMON, a royal pain and quite often blocking sites that you need to use, but I don't believe I've ever gone a day without seeing that message. Even slashdot has been blocked and unblocked dozens of times over the years. (which makes my breaks quite boring)
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I kinda guessed that as soon as I saw the error message. It's pretty common in schools, libraries etc. over here.
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Unless...you are one of the IT guy who set the rules and can do it anyway...
Or you are a dev with admin right and use a data/url crypter and voila : You can spend some time lurking on TD or TED totaly unnoticed !
Oh ! can non-American vote for Masnick presidency ?
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Sure, use a Diebold voting machine. :)
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http://xkcd.com/838/
Perhaps just a case of old-fashioned thought-policing.
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Techdirt would be blocked as "Tasteless".
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Wikileaks banned
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"We're Sorry..."
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Based on DOD access policies, access to this web site ( http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110112/16054412641/customs-hamfisted-attempts-to-intimidate-wikil eaks-volunteers.shtml ) has been blocked because the website contains the letters 'a', 'e', 'i', 'l', 'k', 's', and 'w' which when re-assembled spells the word 'wikileaks' which is filtered, your IP address and username have been recorded and forwarded to your IA staff for immediate processing and your eventual deportation to Durkastan.
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DOD=
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Small detail
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Misunderstanding
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http://www.boingboing.net/2011/01/19/wikileaks-volunteer-2.html
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And the lack of mentioning so only gives ammo to those who argue that you are taking a fear-mongering slant. I bet if they go here:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110101/21182712478/more-mass-porn-copyright-infringement -lawsuits-get-dumped.shtml
techdirt gets blocked for 'sexual content', but you would probably have to work a little harder to make it interesting.
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http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110101/21182712478/more-mass-porn-copyright-infringement -lawsuits-get-dumped.shtml
techdirt gets blocked for 'sexual content', but you would probably have to work a little harder to make it interesting."
So, it's OK because they use the same level of sophistication for their filters as the average primary school?
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No blocks here.....
Additionally; I would be the one to impose any blocks such as this at my location if they were to come down from above. I can state emphatically that no such directives have been issued to our command.
Personally; I think whoever is managing the security at the location where the original report came from is either making up their own rules or their command is directing them to perform this action. They could have also just made a mistake with their filtering.
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No, its just not malicious, nor is it DoD wide. I was merely pointing out the hype, not defending.
-also pointing out that this is like the 3rd WebSense related post, in hopes that the glaringly obvious is at least considered before posting, as it feels really dirty trying to find some wider conspiracy or use this as a defense for any stance at all.
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http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110113/16560912662/dod-blocking-access-to-techdirt-b ecause-its-about-computers-internet.shtml has been categorized as Anonymous Proxy & Hacking. It has been blocked per your organization's Internet Usage Policy for group Public.
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