The Department of Defense has been asked to reconsider its decision to block military access to social networking sites on its computers. In regardes to use of the sites, where soldiers share photos, videos and audio recordings with family and friends back home, the DoD cited bandwidth and security issues. In a May 15 letter to the Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, U.S. Rep. Edward Markey argued: "If network congestion was an issue, for instance, it is surprising that no bandwidth-intensive gaming sites are on the list of prohibited sites. I believe the military should have opted to ration any scarce bandwidth resources it was encountering rather than summarily blocking access by U.S. troops completely."

DoD spokesman Air Force Major Patrick Ryder said a response was being prepared to Markey's letter. "We have received the congressman's letter and are developing a response. However, as a matter of policy, we don't discuss the specifics of correspondence intended for Congress, so it would be inappropriate to comment. In regards to the issue of DoD's decision to block certain recreational Web sites, I can tell you that this step was taken to ensure DoD computer networks are available for combat operations and critical support activities." Rear Adm. Elizabeth Hight, vice director, Defense Information Systems Agency, said more sites could be blocked in the future.

News source: PC World


There are 9 additional comments
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(2 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #1 Posted by GoatOfMendez on 20 May 2007 - 20:16
Why doesnt the DoD create its own chat/file sharing servers? for family and friends.....

Thats would kill 2 birds with 1 stone... soldiers keep in touch and the DoD have control of the servers.
Quote this comment #1.1 Posted by parithon on 22 May 2007 - 04:24
Quote - (GoatOfMendez said @ #1)
Why doesnt the DoD create its own chat/file sharing servers? for family and friends.....

Thats would kill 2 birds with 1 stone... soldiers keep in touch and the DoD have control of the servers.


Because, technically, the DoD controlled internet isn't supposed to be used for this kind of communication; it's for business use only.
Quote this comment #1.2 Posted by eXtermia on 23 May 2007 - 08:55
There already is one for the ARMY its called AKO and soon AKO will be working with a DoD portal type. AKO has been around along time.

Besides the DoD has always reserved the right to limit comercial access when it is required for mission.. this is all jsut old news rehashed and has no real value. All these sites actng like its news........
(2 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #2 Posted by t_bonerman02 on 20 May 2007 - 21:25
despite the article, the issue has nothing to do with network congestion, or even security issues, to a degree. for every bit of data sent out of each bases intranet (thats the WAN on each base) the DoD has to pay money... just like you would if your ISP billed you per, say, kb of data sent to and from your home. personally, i think we (yes, im in the military too) should have access to surf as we please... we train people to combat computer attacks, actually, the air force has a new major command set up just for that purpose. unfortunately, todays military... except for the marine corps, ironically, does not care about the individual's morale, only the well-being of the machine. so by that logic, this is the only step possible... what's next "you can't get married if your in the military, and if youre already married you have to get a divorce"? (<<< that was exageration)
Quote this comment #2.1 Posted by divadiow on 21 May 2007 - 10:13
Quote - (t_bonerman02 said @ #2)
despite the article, the issue has nothing to do with network congestion, or even security issues, to a degree. for every bit of data sent out of each bases intranet (thats the WAN on each base) the DoD has to pay money... just like you would if your ISP billed you per, say, kb of data sent to and from your home. personally, i think we (yes, im in the military too) should have access to surf as we please... we train people to combat computer attacks, actually, the air force has a new major command set up just for that purpose. unfortunately, todays military... except for the marine corps, ironically, does not care about the individual's morale, only the well-being of the machine. so by that logic, this is the only step possible... what's next "you can't get married if your in the military, and if youre already married you have to get a divorce"? (<<< that was exageration)


riiight
Quote this comment #2.2 Posted by eXtermia on 23 May 2007 - 09:08
That is not true. The DoD has its own networks (as well as using commercial) on DoD owned equipment. Granted anything going across a commercial network costs additional money. However as more networks are changed to DoD owned internal to the DoD there is no fee for access or bandwidth (internaly).

This doesn't mean that the networks don't suffer. I won't tell you where I am but I have seen network utilization reports and beleive me. You give a soldier a way to sham (I am a former soldier as well) he will find a way to shaw even more.. Instead of doing the job he was paid to do during duty hours s/he will be out surfing for porn, ebay, etc... I have seen it all to often. And all use of any U.S. Gov system is consent to monitoring. Limited Moral use has always authorized unless critical network use was required to supercede it. That is normal practice for almost any employee's org.

It was designed for Command and Control not to surf porn, buy off ebay, or go to migenta.com . There are MWR facilities in most locations that let you do most that - the porn. But tell me if you are a US tax Payer ..how would you want your dollars spent.. Paying you to do a job... or paying you to sit and leech bandwidth for your own personal gain?

Remember the INTERNET was developed form ARPANET and the DoD maintained many of the Root DNS servers for many years. ( I know one of the DNS admins)
(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #3 Posted by minerva_xxxx on 20 May 2007 - 21:56
only in america
Quote this comment #3.1 Posted by eXtermia on 23 May 2007 - 09:16
hahahah that almost made me laugh.

I have supported communications with testing for 78 countries (actively invloved in 46 personaly) and even if thier ethics aren't the same as the US Military every country, every workplace has rules. They all have similar restrictions for the same reason.
From Albania to Turkey, from UK to France, for Kyrgzystan to Armenia, to South Africa and back again.

"only in america" is such a mindless over used response. Considering that Canada and United states both make up North America, and there is Central and South America too ... ohh you mean America as in people who claim to be "Americans" aka United States Citizens.

or were you saying "only in america" it would make the news... well in that case I guess I agree with you. Many countries wouldn't even let views, stories or comments like that even be posted (not yours I mean the org article).
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #4 Posted by carstereos on 22 May 2007 - 00:35
Everything costs money, true. But saturating any network will cripple it.
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