White House Battles Employee Porn
By Deb Riechmann
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, Aug. 10, 2000; 7:31 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON –– When White House officials punished a handful of
employees a year ago for downloading pornographic material from the
Internet, they thought they had snuffed out the problem. It has resurfaced.
"There was a recent uptick in incidents of this in the last month or so,"
White House spokesman Jake Siewert said Thursday. "We're not certain
who did it, but we're starting to sort it out and those people will be
punished too."
The Internet news site WorldNetDaily, which first reported the story
Wednesday, said a consultant hired last year to improve security in the
White House's computer network uncovered "massive pornographic
video files passing through the system's Internet firewall," which protects
the system against hackers. WorldNetDaily said the unidentified computer
consultant from California alerted officials to the cyber-porn problem in
February 1999.
"A handful of White House employees were reprimanded and one was
suspended without pay a year ago for downloading pornographic material
from the Internet," Siewert said, insisting that the problem was not
"massive" as WorldNetDaily reported, but amounted to "isolated
incidents."
He declined to provide details or say how many employees were
involved. In response to the problem, the White House enhanced filters
used to block access to inappropriate sites.
"This is clearly against White House policy," Siewert said. "Every time you
turn on a computer you're told to use the Internet specifically for official
government business only."
–––
On the Net:
WorldNetDaily: http://www.worldnetdaily.com
© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
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By Deb Riechmann
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, Aug. 10, 2000; 7:31 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON –– When White House officials punished a handful of
employees a year ago for downloading pornographic material from the
Internet, they thought they had snuffed out the problem. It has resurfaced.
"There was a recent uptick in incidents of this in the last month or so,"
White House spokesman Jake Siewert said Thursday. "We're not certain
who did it, but we're starting to sort it out and those people will be
punished too."
The Internet news site WorldNetDaily, which first reported the story
Wednesday, said a consultant hired last year to improve security in the
White House's computer network uncovered "massive pornographic
video files passing through the system's Internet firewall," which protects
the system against hackers. WorldNetDaily said the unidentified computer
consultant from California alerted officials to the cyber-porn problem in
February 1999.
"A handful of White House employees were reprimanded and one was
suspended without pay a year ago for downloading pornographic material
from the Internet," Siewert said, insisting that the problem was not
"massive" as WorldNetDaily reported, but amounted to "isolated
incidents."
He declined to provide details or say how many employees were
involved. In response to the problem, the White House enhanced filters
used to block access to inappropriate sites.
"This is clearly against White House policy," Siewert said. "Every time you
turn on a computer you're told to use the Internet specifically for official
government business only."
–––
On the Net:
WorldNetDaily: http://www.worldnetdaily.com
© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
Back to the top
