U.S. Military May Ban Social Networks

U.S. Military May Ban Social Networks

racetalkblog.com

Social networking may no longer be an option for the United States’ armed forces as the U.S. military is contemplating a ban on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks in light of security concerns. According to WIRED, this fresh ban stems from fears that Facebook and other social networks are far too easy for hackers and cybercrooks to gain access to the military’s networks.

This is not the first time a military has restricted the use of social networks. In April 2008 Israel deemed Facebook as a security threat and placed restrictions on what soldiers were allowed to post on thei

(visit the link for the full news article)

I feel that this is one of those good out weighs the bad. Our armed forces need to stay in touch with who the swore to protect and love, especially in this day and age. They need to know that they are not being lied to.
But on the other hand, this is disobeying a direct order. What a dilemma. Glad im out .

Im sure we have a few here....hope you have a plan.


mod: I wasent sure where to put this ...please move if nessa !!

racetalkblog.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

my honest opinon.. F Them....

Why... ohhh secretes may get out.. know what if we owned up to our own crap.. every country and bellyed up to the bar and told it like it was, and united as a species, there would be no need for all this crap.
Just a nother way for them to sensor us...

ban to prevent giving away secrets or ban to keep us apart, and keep things as are, one country aginst another, when in reality there is not that much diffrent between any and all of us...

Edit to add...
not that i think most i.e. facebook, twitter, myspace etc is worth its weight in crap but the fact that they are trying to control it for a "if" situation is bs



[edit on 11-8-2009 by severdsoul]

I could understand why they would consider a decision like this but I am sure it would be hard to come to.

Years ago when I was in Korea I started using Myspace to keep in contact with my friends and family. I late started using facebook but I was concerned about accessing my account in Iraq due to the information that was on there. For example, I walked around Iraq doing patrols and people could see my face. I am willing to bet that somebody could search the internet for any profiles that say US military or something along those lines. If somebody could match my face to a profile or even hack into my profile they would have a good amount of info on everybody close to me.

Along with that, sometimes soldiers will accidentally post sensitive information on their profiles. For example, if someone was to post "One month till I get to see my friends and family", that gives away a time frame for movement and units changing over. Often times when new units come in the insurgency will test them and see how they react to different things. Every unit has different training and different SOP.

OPSEC (Operational Security) is taught to soldiers on a regular basis but accidents to happen. You would be surprised how much information you can give away just by body language or your choice of words(In a message for instance).

reply to post by severdsoul


I agree.
I also forgot to say how I heard of this. Im listing to patriot radio and a caller said her son , who is in the military, said this is being told to them.

may ban?
already done for certain camps

Marines for example have completely banned all social networking sites altogether.

The reason they stated was because of worms and viruses.
Apparently u.s. military has absolutely no understanding or even perhaps aren't in the know of the existence of firewalls, anti-virus products, anti-phising technology, and a whole lot of other security products.

In other words, they are lying and that is undebatable!

It isn't clear from the article whether *all* soldiers would be banned, or only those in combat zones. For those in combat, it makes perfect sense, and is something along the lines of censoring their mail. During wartime, soldiers have all their outgoing letters read, and if there is anything sensitive in them, the letters are blacked out or even cut out.

This restriction on Internet communications is nothing more than a logical extension of censoring letters, to keep soldiers from revealing information that might help the enemy. Personal letters are read by the intended recipients, usually, and go no further. Internet posts can be read by the whole world, and not everyone in the world happens to have our best interests at heart.

Personally, I think that soldiers should not have have had access to Facebook, etc., in the first place, because it's just asking for trouble.

[edit on 8/11/2009 by chiron613]

The ban is for DOD computers that are on the .mil domain. Troops personal computers on commercial internet are not affected. The blog conveniently fails to mention that.

www.stripes.com...

Originally posted by bg_socalif
The ban is for DOD computers that are on the .mil domain.

I'm glad someone mentioned this. Big Brother is not controlling anyone's lives or computers here folks. They're controlling what already belongs to them; the .mil domain. Troops will still have access to civilian email accounts and many other other websites. Last year in Iraq I was on ATS whenever I had downtime.

Apparently u.s. military has absolutely no understanding or even perhaps aren't in the know of the existence of firewalls, anti-virus products, anti-phising technology, and a whole lot of other security products.

Who do you think invented those...

People in the military have a job to do. That job is not messing around on myspace and facebook and trying to pick up chicks..etc. When I was a marine in iraq I used email to talk to my wife, daughter and family, I don't see the big deal with this. Also if guys and gals in the mil want to use facebook bad enough they will find a way around this, I'm sure.

[edit on by jeasahtheseer]

[edit on by jeasahtheseer]

Originally posted by ModernAcademia
may ban?
already done for certain camps

Marines for example have completely banned all social networking sites altogether.

The reason they stated was because of worms and viruses.
Apparently u.s. military has absolutely no understanding or even perhaps aren't in the know of the existence of firewalls, anti-virus products, anti-phising technology, and a whole lot of other security products.

In other words, they are lying and that is undebatable!

I have a good friend in the Marines. I talk to him quite a bit over facebook chat. He's not deployed and I don't know if he's using his own personal computer or not, but I know for a fact that marines are at least allowed to use it.