US Military Makes YouTube And MySpace Off Limits

CYBER WARS

US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have been increasingly using community-oriented websites such as YouTube and MySpace.

by Staff Writers
San Francisco (AFP) May 14, 2007
US military officials said on Monday that MySpace, YouTube and about ten other social-networking websites are off limits to soldiers using Department of Defense computer systems. The regulation is intended primarily to prevent military Internet connections from being clogged with uploads or downloads of data-rich files such as video clips, said Defense Department spokesman Commander Jeffrey Gordon.

The ban is also meant to guard against infiltration by malicious or spying software hidden in files by hackers, according to Gordon.

"The bottom line is bandwidth; that is the most important thing," Gordon told AFP. "We have to make sure the network is reliable."

US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have increasingly used community-oriented websites such as YouTube and MySpace to share videos, images or stories about their daily lives with loved ones and the world.

The regulation does not prevent soldiers from accessing the websites with their own computers and Internet connections.

However, most US soldiers deployed in battle zones in the Middle East are only able to access the Internet via Defense Department networks.

"It obviously impacts people deployed far greater than those in the US," Gordon said of the new rule. "Here you can just go home to your house and go online, or go to a coffee shop to get on the Internet."

US soldiers remain able to write online journals, or "milblogs," using DOD networks as long as they adhere to requirements not to reveal information that could jeopardize missions.

MySpace, YouTube and the other websites were targeted for restriction after a usage study showed they were the most visited websites by soldiers, according to Gordon.

Source: Agence France-Presse

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CYBER WARS

Estonia To Discuss Cyber-Attacks With NATO And EU

Tallinn (AFP) May 11, 2007
Estonia is to raise the issue of how to handle cyber-attacks against state computer systems in meetings with partner member states of the NATO military alliance and European Union, officials said Friday. "If the ports of a NATO member country are under attack, it is considered an attack against the whole of NATO, and the military alliance comes to help," Defence Minister Jaak Aaviksoo said.

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