Matt Richtel The New York Times Wednesday, March 12, 2003
http://www.iht.com/articles/89467.html
Concerned that sensitive information might leak out, some units of the United States military are starting to clamp down on e-mail communication from their soldiers and sailors, who have been using it from ships, major bases and even desert outposts around Iraq to stay in touch with family and friends.
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The uncertainty underscores the double-edged nature of a technology that is giving an unprecedented opportunity for instantaneous interaction from the most remote locations, a development the Pentagon believes is helping to improve the morale in the field and at home. At the moment, much of the electronic communication is going unmonitored by the military, providing an opportunity for what some fear could be inadvertent leaks from the potential battlefield.
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The air force warned last week that it might limit or start blocking electronic messages because some people had sent home sensitive information, including digital images that might have compromised unit safety. The navy has said that on submarines, it is monitoring all e-mail traffic. And the army, while generally maintaining open access to e-mail, is restricting some Internet connections from certain bases.
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Across the military, individual soldiers have been instructed not to send sensitive information. But the policy about what Internet access to allow and what material to monitor or censor has been largely left to division and unit commanders on the theory that they are best able to judge what constitutes a real threat to security.
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Some military critics argue that there should be a clearer Pentagon-wide policy on how to deal with a communications system that offers instant access beyond what was available in any previous conflict. The critics assert that e-mail and Internet communication raises several potential problems: It is voluminous and thus hard to monitor; it can convey not only words but images; and it is immediate, meaning that an enemy could conceivably tap into real-time updates of, say, troop movements, the presence of a general, or a military outpost’s perimeter defenses.
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Still, computer security experts are not particularly concerned that Iraqi forces would devote much attention to trying to hack into e-mail communications from U.S. troops. Moreover, the military’s sensitive operational information is kept on a proprietary network called the Secret Internet Protocol Network that is not connected to the publicly-accessible Internet, making it extremely hard for hackers to penetrate.
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Rather, the problem that computer and military experts worry about is that Iraqi forces might accidentally obtain a message sent home by a soldier that ended up being forwarded to someone sympathetic to Iraq, or that outsiders might view a picture published on a publicly accessible Web site. more ///
earlier entry on British Government ‘data comms’ proposals:
http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com/2003_03_09_tash_lodge_archive.html#90547523
