Private and confidential information on House ethics committee staffer computer compromised by peer to peer (p2p) music sharing software

P2P software used for sharing music is not only a huge problem for copyright holders, but also a gigantic privacy problem for its users. It is an even bigger information security for their employers. Did you know that some P2P software, such as Limewire, shares contents of your  hard drive that you consider “private” by default?  An Army employee found this the hard way, when the names, social security numbers, and the names of their spouses were made available through P2P software to anyone interested (or not) on the planet. According to Tiversa, the document is actively downloaded in Pakistan and the Middle East.

The problem has become even more obvious the other day when a House ethics committee staffer copied and took home some sensitive information about pending ethics investigations. That same staffer was also P2P file sharer. The consequence? A confidential Ethics committee was released to the entire known world. The report included current investigations related to Rep Rangel’s real estate deals (he is known to have leased 4 rent controlled apartments for personal use) or to Rep Harman’s dealings with an Israeli “operative” (as labeled by Washington Post)  that would ‘ve traded her influence for the operative’s ability to convince Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, to nominate Ms Harman chair of the House Intelligence Committee.

The morale? P2P software often opens wide open local hard drives for outside searching and file sharing. If you are using P2P, somehow, someone will figure out that your hard drive contents go beyond the trivial.

Editorial – Congress’s OMG Over the P2P Leak – NYTimes.com.

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