Virus makes Classified Data Go On-Line

PhysOrg ^ | 3/9/06 | UPI

[grandpa jones]

File-share can be a dangerous business, or so Japanese government agencies are finding out the hard way.

Two weeks after the country's Maritime Self-Defense Force found out that some highly classified information had been posted on the World Wide Web for all to read as a result of a programming error in its file-sharing Winny system, a slew of other agencies are finding similar problems.

Winny itself is a peer-to-peer file-sharing program that has been charged with violating copyright laws in Japan. It has, however, proved to be popular with much of the population because of its cheap cost and user-friendly format, many of whom have installed the software onto their own personal computers, including bureaucrats. But the use of their personal computers for official business has proved to be particularly hazardous when dealing with government data.

[grandpa jones]

Still, government agencies are far from alone in being victims of Winny. On Wednesday a public elementary school in Gunma prefecture reported that private information on 422 of its students was posted on the Internet as a result of the software, while earlier this week a hospital in Toyama said data on 2,800 patients that have had operations was leaked.

I think I saw this movie...

[mysterio]

LOL. Why would you put a file sharing program on a secure computer holding classified data anyway?

[boomop1]

Maybe we WILL get to see the entire Barrett report.

[Stashiu]

Also, what is a computer cleared for processing classified material doing on the internet?

[ASH71]

horrible security

As a result, the agency issued a warning to all employees Wednesday that they are no longer to use their own privately owned computers for their work, especially when they are connected onto the Internet