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Whistleblowers at Risk When Using U.S. Government Websites

posted by takyon on Sunday April 19 2015, @01:04AM   Printer-friendly
from the secure-until-retaliation dept.

AnonTechie writes:

From PC World:

More than two dozen U.S. government websites should be urgently upgraded to use encryption, as whistleblowers are potentially at risk, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

At least 29 websites that can be used for reporting abuse and fraud don't use encryption, the ACLU said in a letter sent on Tuesday to the U.S.'s top technology chief, CIO Tony Scott.

There has been a broad push recently to move websites to using SSL/TLS (secure sockets layer/transport security layer) encryption. Most e-commerce sites use SSL/TLS, but the case has grown stronger for its broader adoption because of a surge in state-sponsored espionage and cybercriminal activity.

The government plans to upgrade all of its websites within two years to use encryption, signified by "https" in a browser's URL bar. It prevents data that is exchanged between a computer and a website from being read if it is intercepted or tampered with during a man-in-the-middle attack.

The ACLU said that the timeline "is not soon enough for some sensitive sites," which it said included the Justice Department, Treasury Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

 
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  • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday April 19 2015, @10:46AM

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday April 19 2015, @10:46AM (#172793) Journal

    Is there a particular reason to send it over the company's network instead of simply transporting it outside and send it from there? Especially in the times of BYOD you should have all the necessary means to do that.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
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  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday April 20 2015, @02:37PM

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Monday April 20 2015, @02:37PM (#173137)

    Not every company is BYOD, in fact I've never seen that myself anywhere.

    Doing internet stuff on a cellphone is a PITA; it's a lot easier to use a real computer. The only computer people usually have at work is the work-owned computer. If it's a laptop, it might be possible to use it with your cellphone and avoid going through the company network, but now you're using your your cellular data allotment, and getting slower speed, plus it's a PITA to switch back and forth.

    • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday April 20 2015, @06:01PM

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Monday April 20 2015, @06:01PM (#173208) Journal

      If I had the choice between inconvenient and dangerous, I'd choose inconvenient any day,

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.