House Panel Revisits File-Sharing Security
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will wade back into the debate over inadvertent file-sharing over peer-to-peer networks next Wednesday. The panel has scheduled a hearing that will focus on how popular platform LimeWire and other services could endanger citizens and jeopardize national security. Lime Group Chairman Mark Gorton, Tiversa CEO Robert Boback and Progress and Freedom Foundation Senior Fellow Thomas Sydnor are scheduled to testify. The committee held similar hearings in July 2007 and four years earlier. After the 2003 hearing, the P2P industry adopted a voluntary code of conduct to prevent inadvertent disclosures of sensitive information.
In March 2007, the Patent and Trademark Office released a report suggesting that inadvertent file-sharing may still be a serious problem and that the industry might not be living up to its promises. In response to the PTO report, committee staff conducted its own probe. Using LimeWire, aides ran a series of common searches during a one month period. They were able to easily obtain personal bank records and tax forms, attorney-client communications, corporate strategy documents for Fortune 500 companies, confidential corporate accounting documents, government emergency response plans, and even military operation orders.
Meanwhile, Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., who is not on the committee, introduced legislation earlier this year that would help educate Internet users about P2P privacy and security risks. The bill came on the heels of reports that file-sharing software was implicated in a security breach involving Marine One, the helicopter used by President Obama. Bono Mack's measure, which was cosponsored by Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga., and Energy and Commerce ranking member Joe Barton, would ensure P2P programs cannot be installed without providing clear notice and obtaining user consent. It would also make it illegal for firms to prohibit users from blocking, disabling, or removing the software.
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