US Attorney’s Office in Boston Warns Employees Not to Log onto Drudge Report Because “Virus Was Found”
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on May 15, 2009
By Vicki McClure Davidson * Frugal Café Blog Zone
What a transparent, bogus reason to give to keep government employees from going to the Drudge Report website. Viruses can be found and picked up from anywhere, on any site on the Internet. That’s why current virus, worm, botnet, and trojan protection on computers is so imperative.
And if employees’ computers in a US government facility aren’t secure from cyber-attacks, don’t have up-to-date, properly installed virus protection, then yikes! This is dangerously naive. That’s going to create a potentially bigger problem for the Massachusetts office than people reading a few conservative news stories on Drudge’s site. The IT guys either dropped the ball on their network security or the head honchos in the Attorney General’s Massachusetts office are trying to pull a fast one.
If Drudge was unsafe to visit in Massachusetts, it would also be unsafe in all other states and countries. Viruses don’t pay attention to borders… just like illegal immigrants don’t, eh?
What a crock… I’ve never gotten a virus from Drudge and I access it from two different computers several times a day, as does my husband. Have liberal websites have ever been banned “for viruses” by the US Attorney’s Office, like Huffington Post or Daily Kos? Something is fishy in Massachusetts’ Democrat government, methinks.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts directed employees earlier this month not to log onto the Drudge Report website with government-issued computers due to potential viruses on the site.
In an e-mail message sent May 4, Paul Harvey, an information-technology official for the Boston office, wrote that security specialists with the U.S. Attorney’s Office at the Department of Justice asked them “to reformat/reimage two computers because the user visited the drudgereport.com site.”
“Please avoid the Drudgereport website from the [United States Attorney’s Office] computers,” Harvey wrote.
Harvey said that if employees had a “work-related reason to visit the site,” access could be provided off the government network.
Asked why the conservative-leaning news aggregator and President Barack Obama critic was flagged by Internet security officials, Tracy Schmaler, a Department of Justice spokeswoman, said it was because “a malicious code was found contained in a Web ad on Drudge.”
Schmaler also said the request to stay off Drudge wasn’t politically motivated and said it was sent only to the office in Massachusetts. She also said other popular sites were later found to have potential viruses, including ESPN.com.
“Wasn’t politically motivated.” Yeah, right.
Related reading:
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Big Brother Watching? Outrageous New Bills Would Give Obama Power, Control of Internet Data and How to Fight Botnets and Trojans | Cyber-crime Attacks Could Cost You Money, Your Identity, Computer Data, & Credit Card Info
About the author
Could be some substance here.
I just tried Drudge and only got the list of lnks, Ann Coulter etc.
No main page, no pictures.
This has never happened to me before.
AFVET – I’ve been on Drudge several times today and am not experiencing the problems you’re describing. You might try “refreshing” to see if that resolves it.
Off point here, my WordPress account was offline late yesterday through early this morning, I’m guessing for maintenance. Perhaps Drudge is also going through maintenance? Just a thought.
Dashing back to work to finalize some “important government stuff” – will be checking in as time permits, but don’t anticipate being able to research/write/post for most of today (which is a cryin’ shame, because the ‘Liar of the House’ just keeps giving me new material… LOL).
Have a great Saturday!
‘Liar of the house’ !!!
agreed !
I kinda think I hit Drudge on a server drain.
He’s faster now.
All’s good now, then?
Any ideas on what’s going on with Vets On The Watch?
One comment, and I have seen this referenced on Vets(wordpress).
the comments seem to be out of sequence.
All of the comments are there but they don’t follow a thread.
When I submit this comment, there will be a time stamp.
I live in the eastern time zone….DST
No Biggy…. just a curiosity.
AFVET: I increased the numbers of “nestings” per comment posted (i.e., replies). I think that’s what you were querying concerning your comment posts being “out of sequence.” I had it set to 6; I’ve now increased it to 10. Once the nesting number has been met or exceeded, it begins anew (I think… I’m still a newbie at this). That may be why the time stamps were odd looking. Hope it looks better now and makes more sense.
Thank you for your support about the blog. I’m still a new face on the conservative plain, and a new blogger to boot. I’m learning as I go. But, where I may lack in expertise, I’d like to think I make up for in passion and patriotism.
I always enjoy reading your comments and input. You usually make many good points and I believe that they benefit other readers.
I’m in AZ, which is Mountain Standard Time (MST)… we don’t follow Daylight Savings, so for 6 months out of the year we’re at the same time as California.
‘Liar of the house’ !!!
agreed !
I kinda think I hit Drudge on a server drain.
He’s faster now.
By the way I was a computer technician for Xerox, refresh didn’t work.
love your site!
Computer tech for Xerox… very cool! What do you do these days?
Retired from the rat race of being employed by Xerox.
A little vacation if you know what I mean.
A reprieve from the rat race is always welcomed, isn’t it?
I know I was thinking that this past week… uber-busy at work. But being gainfully employed is better than other alternatives for me right now, so no complaints.
Is this the start of our 1st Amendment right’s infringement ?
Vetsonthewatch has not posted anything since May 10.
I’ve noticed that, too. Maybe he’s on vacation? Hope all is OK…
Drudge just worked again, maybe a server base update, I don’t know.
I just know it’s not my computer.
Glad it’s doing better for you.