[Infowarrior] - DOD blocking YouTube, Myspace

[Richard Forno]

(I suspect bandwidth-savings is only part of the reason here.......rf)

DOD blocking YouTube, others
To save bandwidth, officials say several sites to be off-limits at work

By Leo Shane III, and T.D. Flack, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, May 13, 2007

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=45834

Starting Monday, the Defense Department will block access to MySpace,
YouTube and a host of other sites on official department computers
worldwide, in an effort to boost its network efficiency.

Troops and families living on U.S. bases will still be able to view the
sites through private Internet networks, but the move leaves servicemembers
in Iraq and Afghanistan who use the popular picture- and video-sharing sites
with little or no access to them.

Defense officials said the move is solely a reaction to the heavy drain the
streaming video and audio can put on the defense computer network.

³We¹re not passing any judgment on these sites, we¹re just saying you
shouldn¹t be accessing them at work,² said Julie Ziegenhorn, spokeswoman for
U.S. Strategic Command. ³This is a bandwidth and network management issue.
We¹ve got to have the networks open to do our mission. They have to be
reliable, timely and secure.²

In a message to troops from U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. B.B. Bell on
Friday, he acknowledged many of the sites being blocked are used by troops
to keep in touch with family and friends.

³This recreational traffic impacts our official DOD network and bandwidth
availability, while posting a significant operational security challenge,²
he wrote.

Ironically, the Defense Department this year had just begun expanding its
own use of YouTube to reach a younger, broader audience and show clips of
U.S. troops in action.

Multi-National Force ‹ Iraq, U.S. Army Civil Affairs Command in Afghanistan,
and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Gulf Region have all launched
new channels on the Web site to highlight recent successes overseas.

Ziegenhorn said that wasn¹t taken into consideration when the Joint Task
Force Global Network Operations began reviewing and flagging sites that
posed problems to the network.

³This is all about what is a drain on the system,² she said.

A review of the banned sites has been under way since February, she said.
And the task force is still considering other problematic addresses to add
to the list.

³This will be an ever-evolving discussion, because we need to constantly
make sure those networks are available and secure,² she said.

The official policy blocking the sites will be released Monday, the same day
they go into effect. But Ziegenhorn said most network administrators are
already aware of the change.

The individual services have already blocked some sites for the same
bandwidth issues. In addition, Defense Department policy prohibits troops or
civilian workers from using government computers from accessing
inappropriate sites because of inappropriate content, such as pornography.