Sorry, soldier. No Wikileaks for you.

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Kady O'Malley – September 17, 2010

It seems that the IT overlords over at National Defence have issued a department-wide edict against using DND/CF computers to access the controversial Wikileaks website -- not, mind you, on the grounds that the content -- which, it notes, includes thousands of pages of documents related to military operations in Afghanistan -- may be inappropriate, but because due to "the nature of the material, third parties could collect and exploit visitor data or deliver malicious software through downloaded files."

Here's the full text of the anti-Wikileaks memo that went out earlier today. (Oh, and before anyone asks, as far as I know, there's still no rule against visiting Wikipedia. )

From: DWAN Wide Email VIP
Sent: Friday, 17, September, 2010 14:58 PM
Subject: Wikileaks Notice
Importance: High

References:
A. DAOD 6001-1, Acceptable use of the Internet, Defence Intranet and Other Electronic Networks, and Computers

B. National Defence Security Instructions (NDSI)

1. Wikileaks is a website that publishes submissions and leaks of sensitive government, corporate, and military documents, otherwise unavailable to the public. It attempts to preserve the anonymity and un-traceability of its sources.

2. In July 2010, Wikileaks released over 92,000 documents containing details related to operations in Afghanistan between 2004 and 2010, entitled the Afghan War Diary.

3. DND/CF computers are not be used to visit the Wikileaks site or any other websites containing such information. Such use constitutes "unauthorized use" in accordance with reference A.  The Canadian Forces Network Operations centre (CFNOC) is monitoring attempts to view this site's material and will report attempts to the affected chains of command.

4. Reasons for not accessing the site are as follows:

a. The site attracts a large volume of traffic. Given the nature of the material, third parties could collect and exploit visitor data or deliver malicious software through downloaded files.

b. Conducting web searches for this information may expose the user's computer to malicious search engine poisoning attacks.

Original post on Kady O'Malley's blog

Comments

National Defence mind control?

Submitted by Editor on Thu, 09/23/2010 - 10:20.

DND's stated reasons for forbidding soldiers from reading Wikileaks just don't make any sense: by these criteria, virtually every popular site on the internet should be banned.

Could it be that this is simply an attempt to control what our soldiers can learn about the war we are engaged in and the conduct of our allies – public information that any other Canadian citizen can freely access?

David Hutton