US Government Regulation of P2P

[ceriank]

People have been stupid and shared sensitive information over P2P. Now we have this:
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Government- ... -4338.html
Hopefully the scope of this will stay very narrow (regulation of government agencies only).

[kathw]

Was it shared by mistake or by malice?

How on earth do they let anyone actually use P2P apps on gov equipment..they are imbeciles

[damikl]

people think that if they share lot of files, downloading will be faster ( or more hubs accessible in dc++ ) so they share all partitions they have got.
Some people take their laptops ( and sensitive data ) to home, where they have got open wireless network ( should I configure router ?! ), so that regulations may not take effect.

additionally, passwords are send in clear text via IM in some companies.

People are lazy and do not care about security ( what is it ? ).

[zigozag]

There are two interesting articles on P2P-Blog: The Progress and Freedom Foundation: Limewire is the devil's child and Congress: Let's rewrite Gnutella.

The first article is somewhat worrying: a "think-thank" describes LimeWIre as the most insecure P2P application ever, which is of course blatantly false (...but hey, since when propaganda is supposed to be honest and based on facts?) Anyway, the blog post explains it much better than I could do here.

The second article is much more funny, since a Democratic congressman who was described as "more technically-inclined than most politicians" (sic) by CBS proposes either to ban Gnutella nationwide or to rewrite it entirely, and last but not least, force people to use the government written version of Gnutella just because some agencies are unable to administer their networks properly. This "geek" has still a lot to understand about open protocols and public liberties, but anyway, he made my day

[ceriank]

[zigozag]

Read the response of LimeWire's boss Mark Gorton on Computerworld.com: LimeWire chairman: P2P concerns overblown.
Excerpts: "Sydnor says he went and installed LimeWire on a computer and that it immediately started sharing (all of the files) on the computer and that it was a security disaster. What he failed to mention is that in order to achieve that result he had to have taken that computer and installed a previous version of LimeWire on it. He then, really, deliberately had to go and remove all of the security settings on it, ignore countless warnings and consciously share file by file all of the files he was talking about. He then had to uninstall LimeWire from that computer and then reinstall the newer version which just picked up the settings he previously had put on it. He gives the impression that any time you install Limewire it goes and shares all these files and that is just absolutely untrue." and ""You can go and look at the campaign contributions for some of those members. They receive contributions from the recording industry."
The entire interview is definitely worth reading IMHO.

[wiggindesigns]

This reinforces my belief that in order to use a computer, people should have to take an extensive course and get a "license".. Its not the fault of the P2P(well, with some programs it is.. But even then its the user's fault for not researching all the options) that people share their sensitive information. I have seen people I know that have copies of their personal documents, and text documents with their password lists etc in their personal documents folder.

People just need to learn the basics of security online, almost every case of compromised security(or every case from some perspectives) is the users fault. Want to help prevent all of these issues? Simply educate computer users. With how easy it is to use a computer, everyone is using them even if they dont understand the risks.

When it comes to passwords, nothing is secure online. The only decent security with those is a dual-authentication of password and something like a smart card.

[damikl]

[zigozag]

[ocexyz]

That's right. I would not be surprised if that would ocure next discordia move. This is just black PR and this shows definitely how incompetent this one who propose such a regulation is. In internet era he should be pointed as a dinosaur unable to use computer with awarness. Such incompetent ppl should be eliminated from public life and should retire to homes for very old people. To old, to sclerotic and to brainless to lead any aspect of publ;ic life in current times. Perhaps he is also unable to use a calculator or any electronic watch. He should be prevented against his own incompetence as this makes him useless in our times or just dangerous for other ppl using normal life tool. TV and radio must be a magic for him. Poor, not understanding reality useless politic, beeing afraid of modern technology. He just is like a museal object, should be presented to public as non-computer era relict. .