DoD will Now Allow Use of Social Media Sites

DoD opens access to social media sites

Users of unclassified .mil computers are now allowed to access social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter — subject to local control if bandwidth demand or web integrity become issues.

The announcement reverses a nearly three-year ban on access to bandwidth-heavy sites such as MySpace and the Marine Corps’ August ban on access to social network sites, the Pentagon announced Friday.

Local commanders will have the ability to monitor and temporarily limit usage should bandwidth demands or specific viral infections become an issue, as well as “for compliance with security requirements and for fraudulent or objectionable use,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. But responses will be “commensurate” with the threat, he said.

Access to prohibited content sites — those featuring pornography, gambling or hate crime-related material — remains off limits from .mil computers.

The change reflects the Pentagon’s desire to balance the need and desire for network and user security with access to so-called Web 2.0 sites, which allow for user interaction with others and are increasingly being used for official and informational purposes as well as for entertainment, said David Wennergren, the Pentagon’s deputy chief information officer.

“What we had was inconsistency,” Wennergren said in a Friday interview. “Some Web sites were blocked, others weren’t. Some Web sites were blocked only at certain locations.”

The open access policy will rely to a large extent on users’ responsible use of the Internet, much as users practice operational security in other means of communication, such as telephone conversations and letters.

“It’s a pretty responsible work force,” Wennergren said. “You’ve got to be able to use these tools, but you need to do them thoughtfully.”

In addition to the decision to strike a balanced position on Web 2.0 tools, the policy change is also a reflection of “increased security measures” the Pentagon has taken, Whitman said.

The Defense Department has more than 15,000 networks and operates some 7 million Internet technology devices ranging from desktop computers to handheld devices, said Air Force Lt. Col. Eric Butterbaugh, a Pentagon spokesman.

Its networks are “probed” millions of times and are attacked thousands of times daily, Butterbaugh said.

“We’re a popular target,” Wennergren acknowledged.

Bandwidth demand had in part prompted the May 2007 .mil ban on YouTube and 11 other high-bandwidth content sites. But officials found in their six months of deliberations that preceded Friday’s announcement that the ban didn’t stem demand, and realized that across-the-board bans on specific sites were pointless because users could find the content they were looking for on alternate sites.

Several months after that review commenced, in August 2009, the Marine Corps independently banned access to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other sites on its network, citing concern over security. Individual commanders from other services at certain locations had also restricted access to Facebook and other Web sites, the Pentagon said.

Security concerns also led the Pentagon last November to ban the use of thumb drives and other portable digital storage devices in .mil computers, saying they could easily transmit viruses and infect the network. That was partially rescinded Feb. 12, but users are limited to government-issued drives and are to be used “only as a last resort.” Personal thumb drives are banned from use on government computers.

 By William H. McMichael – Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Feb 27, 2010 9:15:28 EST

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