Cheyenne
Ms. Smarty Pantsless
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2000
- Posts
- 59,553
A long, but interesting article about Internet porn in the White House. Maybe I have a weird sense of humor, but I smiled quite a bit while reading it.
Edit: Oops- should have looked at the links to the news already included on the site before posting this. There is already a link to the article. BUT, I'm curious what everyone thinks. Is this a big deal? Porn in the White House I mean.
By Paul Sperry
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_sperry_news/20000809_xnspy_webporn_sc.shtml
WASHINGTON -- A consultant hired last year to beef
up security for the White House's computer network
found massive pornographic video files passing through
the system's Internet firewall, WorldNetDaily has
learned.
Some of the downloaded files were traced back to West
Wing officials as recently as the beginning of last year,
during the height of the impeachment crisis, say sources
who were involved in replacing the firewall system as
part of Y2K security upgrades.
The real-time video files -- which came from hard-core
porn sites featuring homosexual, farm-animal and teen
sex acts -- were so large in byte volume that they
accounted for most of the traffic coming into the firewall,
sources told WorldNetDaily.
All Internet links and e-mail must first pass through the
firewall before coming into the local area network for the
Executive Office of the President and on to individual
network users. The firewall system is designed to
screen Internet traffic for messages containing
network-crippling viruses.
A Y2K computer consultant in early 1999 discovered the
unusually large volume of porn-site traffic coming into
the White House while reviewing the firewall logs.
A White House computer specialist recalled the reaction
of one of the contractors at the time.
"He started to laugh and said, 'It looks like the majority
of traffic going through the firewall is pornography,'"
said the White House employee, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity.
Both President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore have
denounced cyber-porn and have pushed so-called
"E-chips" to block the Internet's "purveyors of
pornography," as Gore called them last year.
White House cyber-security experts have asked
WorldNetDaily to withhold the name of the Y2K
contractor that upgraded the firewall system, arguing
that disclosing the information would tip off hackers to
the security software the White House is using and
make it easier for them to breach the network.
WorldNetDaily agreed to reveal only that the company is
based in California.
The firewall logs show the uniform resource locator, or
URL (basically the Web zip code), of the porn sites from
which the videos (MOVs) and still-graphics (JPEGs
and GIFs) were downloaded.
"There were things that said 'teen,'" the White House
computer expert said. "There was gay and bestiality
stuff too."
Bestiality? "Donkeys, goats, dogs," explained the
source, who later accessed some of the raunchier sites.
"It's embarrassing."
Upon the discovery of the heavy XXX-rated traffic,
White House security specialists undertook a
"forensics" effort to ID the White House network users
who were downloading -- and watching -- the videos
on government computers and time.
Investigators, including White House Security Officer
Charles Easley, looked at a number of variables to
separate the habitual from the accidental Web-porn
surfers. They scanned firewall logs over several weeks
so they could see the repeat offenders. They also zeroed
in on the large-byte files.
What they found was shocking.
"There were some significant names. I can say, yes,
West Wing," said one White House source familiar with
the investigation. "There were women too."
Many of the offenders also officed out of the Old
Executive Office Building, including presidential
personnel, sources say. One was in national security.
One of the worst offenders, however, was a senior
White House computer-systems manager, who was
reprimanded but allowed to stay in the White House
after being treated for an "addiction" to porn. Sources
say the porn abuser is so sensitive to the possibility of
public exposure that he would likely take his own life if
his name were disclosed here.
Security experts weren't just worried about the
bandwidth-eating Web videos slowing down the White
House computer network for legitimate business, or
bringing a "Trojan horse" virus into the system. They
also feared they could open up White House officials to
blackmail from outsiders looking to access the network.
"It's a potential security risk," said one White House
insider. "A hacker could call up an official and say, 'I
have evidence you've been downloading kiddy porn. Give
me your network passcode, or else.'"
The Internet-linked network is unclassified (although
another, classified network exists in the White House),
but most everything on it is still sensitive.
At any given time it may contain secret agendas for
high-level meetings over trade and other policies, for
example, or advance data from unpublished economic
reports. Such information is potentially valuable to
anyone from foreign diplomats looking for geopolitical
leverage to stock traders looking for an edge.
By February 1999, after the California contractor had
replaced the old firewall and alerted officials to the
cyber-porn problem, White House computer specialists
set up filters to block employee access to the porn sites.
Officials could have installed filters on the old Internet
firewall, but never did -- except in the case of one site,
an X-rated spoof of the official White House site. (Last
year, a New Jersey man who says he accidentally logged
onto the unofficial White House site in a public library,
was escorted off by police and banned from the library.)
According to White House insiders, White House
guidelines for proper computer use by employees prohibit
using them for profit, but do not specifically restrict
using them to access Internet pornography.
Last year an Internet porn policy was submitted to
White House lawyers, but was not instated as part of
any global policy, sources say.
In 1997, Clinton and Gore announced a "strategy for a
family friendly Internet" which included proposing the
distribution of "E-chip" technology for filtering
cyber-porn.
"We all know and we've heard the horror stories about
the inappropriate material for children that can be found
on the Internet," Clinton said during the July 16, 1997,
press conference.
The event's press release said: "The president
emphasized that government (has) an important role to
play in achieving the goal of a family friendly Internet."
"The President made clear that the administration
remains committed to the vigorous enforcement of
federal prohibitions against the transmission of child
pornography and obscenity over the Internet," the
release added, "and the use of the Internet by pedophiles
to entice children to engage in sexual activity."
Last year, Gore encouraged parents to "restrict their
children's e-mail contact to keep the potential predators
at bay -- purveyors of pornography."
He said they must be protected from "red light districts
in cyberspace."
The White House has resisted requests from Congress,
a federal court and other investigators to turn over
Internet firewall logs -- which are stored on emergency
back-up tapes -- in response to subpoenas for missing
e-mail sent to West Wing officials over the Internet.
Incoming e-mail also travels through the firewall.
White House lawyers have argued that the logs don't
include the contents of the e-mail, just the "to" and
"from," and therefore would not be helpful to
investigators. Besides, they claim, only the past several
months worth of firewall logs are stored on back-up
tapes; previous tapes of logs are recycled.
Besides incoming e-mails, the tapes of the 1998 and
1999 firewall logs also recorded the massive volume of
porn traffic going into the White House network over
that period, sources say.
--
[Edited by Cheyenne on 08-09-2000 at 06:18 PM]
Edit: Oops- should have looked at the links to the news already included on the site before posting this. There is already a link to the article. BUT, I'm curious what everyone thinks. Is this a big deal? Porn in the White House I mean.
By Paul Sperry
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_sperry_news/20000809_xnspy_webporn_sc.shtml
WASHINGTON -- A consultant hired last year to beef
up security for the White House's computer network
found massive pornographic video files passing through
the system's Internet firewall, WorldNetDaily has
learned.
Some of the downloaded files were traced back to West
Wing officials as recently as the beginning of last year,
during the height of the impeachment crisis, say sources
who were involved in replacing the firewall system as
part of Y2K security upgrades.
The real-time video files -- which came from hard-core
porn sites featuring homosexual, farm-animal and teen
sex acts -- were so large in byte volume that they
accounted for most of the traffic coming into the firewall,
sources told WorldNetDaily.
All Internet links and e-mail must first pass through the
firewall before coming into the local area network for the
Executive Office of the President and on to individual
network users. The firewall system is designed to
screen Internet traffic for messages containing
network-crippling viruses.
A Y2K computer consultant in early 1999 discovered the
unusually large volume of porn-site traffic coming into
the White House while reviewing the firewall logs.
A White House computer specialist recalled the reaction
of one of the contractors at the time.
"He started to laugh and said, 'It looks like the majority
of traffic going through the firewall is pornography,'"
said the White House employee, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity.
Both President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore have
denounced cyber-porn and have pushed so-called
"E-chips" to block the Internet's "purveyors of
pornography," as Gore called them last year.
White House cyber-security experts have asked
WorldNetDaily to withhold the name of the Y2K
contractor that upgraded the firewall system, arguing
that disclosing the information would tip off hackers to
the security software the White House is using and
make it easier for them to breach the network.
WorldNetDaily agreed to reveal only that the company is
based in California.
The firewall logs show the uniform resource locator, or
URL (basically the Web zip code), of the porn sites from
which the videos (MOVs) and still-graphics (JPEGs
and GIFs) were downloaded.
"There were things that said 'teen,'" the White House
computer expert said. "There was gay and bestiality
stuff too."
Bestiality? "Donkeys, goats, dogs," explained the
source, who later accessed some of the raunchier sites.
"It's embarrassing."
Upon the discovery of the heavy XXX-rated traffic,
White House security specialists undertook a
"forensics" effort to ID the White House network users
who were downloading -- and watching -- the videos
on government computers and time.
Investigators, including White House Security Officer
Charles Easley, looked at a number of variables to
separate the habitual from the accidental Web-porn
surfers. They scanned firewall logs over several weeks
so they could see the repeat offenders. They also zeroed
in on the large-byte files.
What they found was shocking.
"There were some significant names. I can say, yes,
West Wing," said one White House source familiar with
the investigation. "There were women too."
Many of the offenders also officed out of the Old
Executive Office Building, including presidential
personnel, sources say. One was in national security.
One of the worst offenders, however, was a senior
White House computer-systems manager, who was
reprimanded but allowed to stay in the White House
after being treated for an "addiction" to porn. Sources
say the porn abuser is so sensitive to the possibility of
public exposure that he would likely take his own life if
his name were disclosed here.
Security experts weren't just worried about the
bandwidth-eating Web videos slowing down the White
House computer network for legitimate business, or
bringing a "Trojan horse" virus into the system. They
also feared they could open up White House officials to
blackmail from outsiders looking to access the network.
"It's a potential security risk," said one White House
insider. "A hacker could call up an official and say, 'I
have evidence you've been downloading kiddy porn. Give
me your network passcode, or else.'"
The Internet-linked network is unclassified (although
another, classified network exists in the White House),
but most everything on it is still sensitive.
At any given time it may contain secret agendas for
high-level meetings over trade and other policies, for
example, or advance data from unpublished economic
reports. Such information is potentially valuable to
anyone from foreign diplomats looking for geopolitical
leverage to stock traders looking for an edge.
By February 1999, after the California contractor had
replaced the old firewall and alerted officials to the
cyber-porn problem, White House computer specialists
set up filters to block employee access to the porn sites.
Officials could have installed filters on the old Internet
firewall, but never did -- except in the case of one site,
an X-rated spoof of the official White House site. (Last
year, a New Jersey man who says he accidentally logged
onto the unofficial White House site in a public library,
was escorted off by police and banned from the library.)
According to White House insiders, White House
guidelines for proper computer use by employees prohibit
using them for profit, but do not specifically restrict
using them to access Internet pornography.
Last year an Internet porn policy was submitted to
White House lawyers, but was not instated as part of
any global policy, sources say.
In 1997, Clinton and Gore announced a "strategy for a
family friendly Internet" which included proposing the
distribution of "E-chip" technology for filtering
cyber-porn.
"We all know and we've heard the horror stories about
the inappropriate material for children that can be found
on the Internet," Clinton said during the July 16, 1997,
press conference.
The event's press release said: "The president
emphasized that government (has) an important role to
play in achieving the goal of a family friendly Internet."
"The President made clear that the administration
remains committed to the vigorous enforcement of
federal prohibitions against the transmission of child
pornography and obscenity over the Internet," the
release added, "and the use of the Internet by pedophiles
to entice children to engage in sexual activity."
Last year, Gore encouraged parents to "restrict their
children's e-mail contact to keep the potential predators
at bay -- purveyors of pornography."
He said they must be protected from "red light districts
in cyberspace."
The White House has resisted requests from Congress,
a federal court and other investigators to turn over
Internet firewall logs -- which are stored on emergency
back-up tapes -- in response to subpoenas for missing
e-mail sent to West Wing officials over the Internet.
Incoming e-mail also travels through the firewall.
White House lawyers have argued that the logs don't
include the contents of the e-mail, just the "to" and
"from," and therefore would not be helpful to
investigators. Besides, they claim, only the past several
months worth of firewall logs are stored on back-up
tapes; previous tapes of logs are recycled.
Besides incoming e-mails, the tapes of the 1998 and
1999 firewall logs also recorded the massive volume of
porn traffic going into the White House network over
that period, sources say.
--
[Edited by Cheyenne on 08-09-2000 at 06:18 PM]
