DoD opens access to social media sites Published March 5, 2010 By William H. McMichael Air Force Times Friday Feb 26, 2010 -- All users of unclassified computers in the .mil domain now will be allowed to access social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter - subject to local control if bandwidth demand or Web integrity become issues. The announcement reverses a nearly three-year ban on access to bandwidth-heavy sites such as MySpace, and the Marine Corps' August ban on access to social network sites, the Pentagon said Friday. The open-access policy will rely largely on the responsible use by troops, much as they practice operational security in other means of communication, such as telephone conversations and letters. It is also a reflection of "increased security measures" the Defense Department has taken, said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman. Local commanders will have the ability to monitor and temporarily limit usage should bandwidth or viral infections from a particular source become an issue, as well as "for compliance with security requirements and for fraudulent or objectionable use," Whitman said. But responses will be "commensurate" with the threat, he said. Access to prohibited content sites - those featuring pornography, gambling or hate crime-related material - remains off-limits from .mil computers. 'Consistent policy' The new social networking policy, under consideration for the past six months, "sets a consistent policy" across the Defense Department, Whitman said. Officials "found that there is value in these new Internet capabilities, and we want to take advantage of these to communicate with soldiers, families and the public at large," he said. "Official" military presence on the Web, such as an individual official's Twitter page, must be approved by the individual's command, be registered with public affairs, use official Defense Department and command logos, and link to the organization's official Web site, the new policy states. In May 2007, the Pentagon blocked worldwide .mil computer access to YouTube, MySpace and 10 other popular sites featuring audio and video clips, citing concerns over the amount of bandwidth the sites took up. Users had to go to their own computers or, if deployed, to outside sites such as Internet cafes to access the sites. In August 2009, the Marine Corps banned access to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other sites on its network, citing concern over security. Individual commanders from other services at certain locations had also restricted access to Facebook and other Web sites, the Pentagon said. When it announced its policy review, the Pentagon said it would search for a way to strike a balance between giving troops the ability to use such social networking tools and maintaining security on its much-attacked computer networks, and protecting the privacy of troops and family members. That included, Whitman said at the time, outsiders "trying to exploit those sites by seeking out vulnerabilities that allow them to enter and access in an unauthorized way - computer systems that may be linking to these peer-to-peer sites," Whitman said. Security concerns led the Pentagon in November to ban the use of thumb drives and other portable digital storage devices in .mil computers, saying they could easily transmit viruses and infect the network. That ban was partially rescinded Feb. 12, but users are limited to government-issued drives and are to be used "only as a last resort." Personal thumb drives are banned from use on government computers.