Roadrunner e-mails blocked by the Army

[unhappycamper]

Roadrunner e-mails blocked by the Army
By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, September 29, 2007

WASHINGTON — Network administrators have blocked soldiers’ access to commercial Web sites and e-mails hosted by Time Warner’s Roadrunner due to security concerns, officials confirmed this week.

For several weeks, soldiers on official computers have been blocked from visiting commercial sites with home pages on the Roadrunner servers and from contacting businesses which use biz.rr.com e-mail extensions.

In a statement, officials from the Army Global Network Operations and Security Center, or GNOSC, said the move was made after network security found some Roadrunner-hosted sites had attempted to infect Army computers with potentially harmful programs.

“Unknown individuals are using this service to engage in malicious activities,” the statement said. “The Army does not believe the domain owner is responsible for the activity, nor would they condone it; but they are ultimately responsible for the security of their networks.”

Center officials said the restrictions will remain “until the risk is mitigated and verified.” They acknowledged that some soldiers and legitimate outside businesses have been inconvenienced by the block, but insisted the move was necessary.

Time Warner spokesman Mark Harrad said officials there were unaware of the problem until this week, but are working with Army officials to address their concerns.


Rest of article at: http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=49133