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The U.S. military is strongly considering a near-total ban on Twitter, Facebook, and all other social networking sites throughout the Department of Defense, multiple sources within the armed forces tell Danger Room.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the latest twist in the Defense Department\u2019s tangled relationship with so-called \u201cWeb 2.0\u2033 sites. But while earlier social media blockades have been thrown up over bandwidth<\/a> and secrecy<\/a> concerns, this fresh ban stems from fears that Facebook and the like make it far too easy for hackers and cybercrooks to gain access to the military\u2019s networks.<\/p>\n Last week, U.S. Strategic Command issued a \u201cwarning order\u201d to the rest of the military, asking for feedback on a social media ban on the NIPRNet<\/a>, the Defense\u2019s Department\u2019s unclassified network. (Naturally, access is already denied on the secret<\/a> and top secret<\/a> nets.)<\/p>\n \u201cThe mechanisms for social networking were never designed for security and filtering. They make it way too easy for people with bad intentions to push malicious code to unsuspecting users. It\u2019s just a fact of life,\u201d says a source at Stratcom, which is responsible for securing the military\u2019s \u201cglobal information grid.\u201d<\/p>\n Last month, for instance, well-known venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki\u2019s Twitter account was hijacked<\/a>, and used to spread a sex video come-on to his 139,000 followers. Those following the link were asked to install a software update. The application was, in fact, a Trojan<\/a>, which allowed hackers to take over a user\u2019s machine.<\/p>\n Similarly, one variant of the nasty Koobface worm searches a PC to find a Facebook cookie<\/a>. Then the malware program uses that information to gain access to the user\u2019s Facebook account. Once it\u2019s in, Koobface spreads messages to online friends, enticing them to download viruses and Trojans.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are much more trusting of a message from a friend or colleague on a social network than they are of an e-mail, because they\u2019re used to e-mails being forged,\u201d says Graham Cluley<\/a>, a senior consultant with the network security firm Sophos. That\u2019s ironic, he adds, because \u201csocial networks aren\u2019t really doing enough to stop these things. With GMail or Hotmail or a military e-mail account, messages are scanned for spam and viruses. Social networks aren\u2019t doing that scanning. They aren\u2019t checking if a link posted to a wall is malicious or spammy. They\u2019re just letting it through.\u201d<\/p>\n Officially, \u201cthe concept of allowing access to social networking sites (SNS) on the Department of Defense .mil networks is currently under review at this time,\u201d a Stratcom spokesperson e-mails Danger Room. \u201cIt would be premature to comment on the outcome of the review.\u201d<\/p>\n But unofficially, the ban is all-but-certain, military officers and civilian employees say. Many are upset, because after years keeping the social networks at arms\u2019 length, the armed services appeared to be finally embracing the Web 2.0 sites. The Army recently ordered all U.S. bases to provide access to Facebook<\/a>. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has 4,000 followers on Twitter<\/a>. The Department of Defense is getting ready to unveil a new home page, packed with social media tools.<\/p>\n \u201cWe fought so hard for this,\u201d says one Army source. \u201cThis is a huge step backwards.\u201d<\/p>\n Under Stratcom\u2019s plan, units that have to regularly communicate with the civilian world, like media relations and recruiting, may be given \u201cdirty computers\u201d \u2014 machines that are connecting only to the public internet, and not to the military\u2019s private networks. The rest of the Defense Department would be cut off from the social media sites, despite protests from inside the Pentagon.<\/p>\n People started working with these social networks \u201cbefore we got a handle on how to use them in the context of the Department of Defense,\u201d a Stratcom source says. \u201cNow, they\u2019re just too big of a headache.\u201d<\/p>\n Read\u00a0original article<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Read the Digest article Facebook in the Field<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n