Aussie PM Office Calls For Government Ban On Gmail, Hotmail 178
aesoteric writes "The Australian National Audit Office has called on all Australian government agencies to block free web-based email services like Gmail and Hotmail to mitigate security and information integrity risks. The auditor noted that such public email services 'should be blocked on agency IT systems, as these can provide an easily accessible point of entry for an external attack and subject the agency to the potential for intended or unintended information disclosure.' Not surprisingly, the move is seen by some as an attempt to prevent a WikiLeaks-style disclosure from occurring."
Re:Hyperbole much? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Why not just block attachments? (Score:3, Interesting)
Personally I think the first thing that they should do prior to disabling gmail or hotmail is disable USB keys from working on the computers in the network... I'm surprised at how many places haven't locked this down... What's the point of locking down the services if they can just copy whatever information and then email it from home?
Or maybe they should look closer at how they are operating first and try to mitigate the risk by running a clean house and educating staff of the finer points of netiquette "no Jill, we do not open executable attachments from outside, even if you think it might have been from Jack". Better still, disable users from running untrusted executables! So many things they could start with, why bother with webmail?