Rich Fiscus
17 Oct 2007 22:06
Members of the U.s. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform have sent a letter to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulators asking for a list of risks associated with the use of P2P software and networks.
The letter stems from hearings the committee conducted earlier this year, where it was suggested by chairman Henry Waxman that P2P software poses a "national security threat" because of files containing sensitive government information which were shared inadvertantly by government employees and discovered during an audit of P2P services.
The interesting aspect of this story is the apparent lack of interest in cracking down on user installed software on government computers. Like almost all corporate IT operations, the government has strict regulations regarding the unauthorized installation of software by users. In fact, a Department of Transportation official testified at that hearing that before installing file sharing software on a government computer the user is required to get written permission first.
So if the point of this isn't to resolve national security issues uncovered during that investigation, what is it? According to the seven page letter the committee submitted to the head of the FTC they're worried that P2P software includes features that share files without the user realizing it. If, in fact, this is a problem - and it's a legitimate question to pose - the next obvious question is what it has to do with government oversight.
Source: House of Representatives