US Military Crackdown On Electronic Communications Begins

12 days after assuring everyone that new regulations aimed at milblogging wouldn't be onerously enforced the US Military has announced a crackdown on on popular communications sites:

The Defence Department will begin blocking access worldwide to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular Web sites on its computers and networks, according to a memo sent on Friday by General BB Bell, the US Forces Korea commander.

The policy is being implemented to protect information and improve security, as well as reduce drag on the department's networks.

"This recreational traffic impacts our official DoD network and bandwidth ability, while posing a significant operational security challenge," Bell said in the memo.

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Members of the military can still access the sites on their own computers and networks - but Defence Department computers and networks are the only ones available to many soldiers and sailors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Stupid Policy, all it does is piss people off and decrease morale. If there is an incident of an OPSEC violation that should be handled individually.

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