Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks could weaken America's national security, according to Congressmen this week. A Government Reform Committee hearing Representatives opined that federal employees could leak secrets from their laptops when running p2p apps.
LimeWire came in for particular critique:
Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.)... accused [Limewire] of making the "skeleton keys" that grant access to material harmful to U.S. national security.
"I'd feel more than a shade of guilt at this point, having made the laptop a dangerous weapon against the security of the United States," Cooper said. "Mr. Gorton, you seem to lack imagination about how your product can be deliberately misused by evildoers against this country." (Cooper also, at one point, claimed that Gorton's own home computer was probably leaking sensitive documents.)
P2P applications are prime targets for cyberfear. They are usually represented as enabling massive copyright violation, of course, and at a global level (cf this case from Japan, this one from Australia), but also for distributing pornography.
(thanks to Steven Kaye)
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