Senate stops P2P, so should you

Last week, the Senate Sergeant at Arms clamped down, and cut off all P2P networking within the Senate. The reason? Such networking practices were a security risk, and they were being used to violate copyright laws.

Copyright violations aside, a P2P network--whether used within a company or over the public Internet--is one of the greatest security risks your employees can engage in. Used illegally, it can create significant risks to the company if violations are uncovered.

Just to be clear, there is more than one type of P2P networking out there in the corporate world. On one hand, there are peering packages such as Kazaa and Gnutella, which exist primarily for file searching and sharing. You can, for example, look for a particular music selection on your network or on the Internet, and then select the location from which you'd like to transfer it. As you'd imagine, when this is done with a work protected by copyright, it's a violation of the law.

But P2P can lead to more than just legal troubles. There are already significant problems with virus-laden binary files invading company networks because employees use file sharing. A couple of worms currently on the loose are even more destructive because they use P2P software, especially Kazaa, to spread their ill will.

But it doesn't end there. Most computers have the ability to invoke P2P networking through their operating system. With Microsoft Windows, for example, when you choose to share a resource, such as your hard disk, you're doing P2P networking. With small companies, this may be a convenient way to share files without having a file server. However, with larger companies it can be a disaster.

One of the characteristics that many of the newer worms look for when they invade a computer is the existence of shared resources. Just as they do with Kazaa, these worms use resource sharing to spread.

But worms aren't the only slimy creatures looking to take advantage of file sharing. What do you suppose is one of the first things a hacker looks for when he breaks into one of your computers? If you guessed sharing, you're right.

Fortunately, you can do something about this. While P2P programs are easy to find and install, they're also easy to disable. You can use your firewall (from the Internet, anyway) and, depending on the capabilities of your infrastructure, perhaps also your switches and routers to turn off P2P programs. Of course, you can also actively remove P2P networking from your employee workstations either through the Policy Manager or through your software distribution and management software.

Whichever way you choose to eliminate the hazard, removing P2P networking from your company's computers is a quick way to lower the risk of damage from worms and viruses--and to limit the damage a hacker can do. It's a step you can take now.

Does your company allow peer-to-peer networking or file sharing between PCs? TalkBack below or e-mail us with your thoughts.