James Delahunty
22 Apr 2009 21:18
Rep. Edolphus Towns, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Darrell Issa, ranking member of the committee, and Rep. Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat, sent a letter this week to government officials and to the head of Limewire, expressing their concerns about the potential risk to privacy and security caused by use of P2P networks.
Mark Gorton, chairman of The Lime Group, appeared before the committee almost two years ago. At the time he admitted he was shocked to learn about the sheer amount of confidential and private information that was accidentally (or intentionally) shared using the Limewire software, and vowed to make changes to the software to help prevent accidental sharing of information.
We're not just talking about curriculum vitae word documents or other personal files common to most users, but some notable accidental P2P leaks are blueprints of Marine One, Social Security numbers, tax returns, and private medical records. "It appears that nearly two years after your commitment to make significant changes in the software, LimeWire and other P2P providers have not taken adequate steps to address this critical problem," they wrote to Gorton.
They have demanded information on security measures put into place since the promise was made in 2007 to do, and asked for any data pertaining to other incidents that may not have been reported.