Congressman calls for P2P ban after sensitive data leaks [Ars Technica]
After a hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, it appears that at least one member of Congress is committing himself to seeing that there is a complete ban on peer-to-peer software on government and government contractors' computers. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform met yesterday to hear testimony about the size and scope of sensitive government information that has been leaked onto the Internet due to file sharing software on government computers. After the hearing, Congressman Edolphus Towns of New York indicated that he was fed up with the leaks, and he was going to sponsor a bill that would ban the software entirely from government computers.
"At its best, with the proper safeguards in place, peer-to-peer software has great potential," Towns told Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which he chairs. "At its worst, it isn't peer-to-peer; it's predator-to-prey."The committee heard testimony from security experts that indicated leaks of sensitive personal information of members of the military had been shared out over the Internet via P2P software. Earlier this year, it was revealed that the schematics for Marine One, the president's helicopter, were leaked from a government contractor's computer via P2P. One security expert testified to the committee that one particular P2P program, when installed on a computer, would automatically share all the documents in the My Documents folder on a PC by default.
It's always better for industries to find ways to regulate their own behavior, rather than ceding that responsibility to the government. P2P providers would do themselves a favor if they figured out a way to stop people from using their products for illegal purposes. If they don't, they can rest assured that the government will and should, and they won't use a scalpel to do it, they'll use a sledge hammer. I mean that with no disrespect -- we shouldn't expect the US Congress to be able to regulate a specific commercial activity better than an industry could regulate its own behavior.
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