Classified info on motorcade leaked

Classified details on President Barack Obama’s motorcade and the first family’s Secret Service hideaway were inadvertently leaked on the Internet, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee learned Wednesday.

The details became public through LimeWire, a peer-to-peer network most commonly used to share music or other files.

{mosads}In this case, it appears government employees using the software may have accidentally allowed access to sensitive documents.

Robert Boback, CEO of Tiversa Inc., delivered the shocking testimony to committee members. Tiversa specializes in peer-to-peer monitoring and security services.

Panel Chairman Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) plans to introduce legislation to ban government employees and contractors from using peer-to-peer networks on official computers.

He also accused LimeWire and other providers of failing to implement necessary safeguards.

“As far as I am concerned, the days of self-regulation should be over for the file-sharing industry,” said Towns.

Mark Gorton, the chairman of LimeGroup LLC, said his company has made “enormous strides” in improving security and that the burden is on users to select the proper privacy settings.

“It’s clear that not enough progress has been made to protect users and government information from inadvertent and malicious file-sharing,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), ranking member on the Oversight panel. “I look forward to working with Chairman Towns as the committee looks for solutions to protect sensitive and personal information.”