P2P Networks: new media, new danger

File sharing P2P networks herald a new national security risk, according to a congressional hearing held in Washington DC, where retired general Wesley K Clark reported to a Government Reform Committee.

In Clark's investigation of the new security threat, his team of researchers found over 200 classified government documents in a few hours search over Peer-2-Peer networks.

"We found everything from Pentagon network server secrets to other sensitive information on P2P networks hackers dream about," said Clark.

Clark is a board member of Tiversa, a security company that conducts 350 million searches per day.

"If everyone knew the scope of the risk of P2P networks, America would be outraged and demand solutions," he said.

The study found thousands of bank statements, server passwords, financial data, public company data, human resources, medical records and fortune 500 company minutes on compliance, by searching P2P networks.

We should not be surprised, commented Safwat Fahmy, chairman of US security supplier SafeMedia. "One of the defining characteristics of contaminated networks is that users rarely ever know that they are sharing the files on their computer with other users on the network."

Inadvertent file sharing >>

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