[ISN] Navy: Don't access personal e-mail at work

[InfoSec News]

http://www.fcw.com/article90710-09-09-05-Web

By Frank Tiboni
Sept. 9, 2005 

Navy employees can no longer access personal e-mail accounts,
including Yahoo Mail and Microsoft Hotmail, from the service’s
networks without approval.

That is one of six rules in the Navy's new acceptable use of
information technology policy issued in July. The "Effective Use of
Department of Navy IT Resources," states that the service's military,
civilian and contractor users cannot:


* Automatically forward official Navy e-mail to a commercial account
  or use a commercial account for official government business without
  approval.

* Install or modify computer hardware or software without approval.

* Circumvent or disable security measures, countermeasures or
  safeguards, such as firewalls, content filters and antivirus
  programs.

* Participate in or contribute to activity that causes a disruption or
  denial of service.

* Write, code, compile, store, transmit, transfer or introduce
  malicious software, programs or code.

* Use peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing applications, such as Kazaa,
  Shareaza and OpenP2P without approval and only in support of Navy
  missions.

"This policy is intended to promote effective and secure use of IT
resources within the Department of the Navy and is an integral part of
the department's information assurance efforts," according to the
policy released by the Navy Department's Chief Information Officer's
Office.

The policy especially called attention to the dangers of P2P
applications, software that permits users to share files including
music and pictures with other users without centralized security
controls or oversight. "Unauthorized use of P2P file-sharing can
result in significant vulnerabilities to Department of the Navy
information systems including unauthorized access to information,
compromise of network configurations and denial-of-service," according
to the policy.

Some Navy employees do not know they should no longer access personal
e-mail at work. However, The Periscope, a publication of the Navy's
submarine base at Kings Bay, Ga., published a story Sept. 8 about the
service's new IT policy.