In this article by Noah Shachtman (a repoter for Wired Magazine, covering many facets of the Pentagon) the White House is making all sorts of information classified. Even stuff that would be more useful in the hands of the right people.

This paragraph sums it up nicely:
"In July, a George Mason University graduate student mapped out in his dissertation the details of the country's fiber optic network. Using information publicly available online, he spotted vulnerable spots where terrorists might strike. The paper could have been used to shore up weak links in the country's infrastructure. Instead, the government immediately suppressed it. "

As a person working with the National Grid's SONET network, I can understand the nessecity of Level3 and WilTel having access to this student's paper. (And what a compliment - government classification!) But, then again, who's to say they don't? If everything is being so uber-sensitive, would the government release the names and organizations to whom they have released this document? If they did, it would immediately paint them as targets for all sort of criminals, from simple miscreants, complex hackers to bona fide terrorists and terrorist sympathizers within these companies.

As a person with Top Secret clearance, I wonder how many useless briefings I would have been spared? Heh. Cool, but useless.

All in all, I find this to be a bad thing. I say that because if the information is out there, it's too hard to keep it in the right hands; and that becomes a take on an old axiom, "If only bad guys have classified information, then only bad guys can abuse classified information."

HOWEVER; just because the good guys have classified information, doesn't mean they'll act upon it. Especially if it costs money! So, let's say we give WilTel a map of their own weaknesses (which their network designers are 100% aware of) - what are they going to do? Lay more fiber in redundant paths? Place armed gaurds at crucial manholes, POPs and poles?

Is the government supposed to mandate they fix their weaknesses? Sounds good, but it also means a huge, bureaucratic oraganization to identify weaknesses (and they won't be as good as WilTel's engineers) and then, on top of that, an oversight comittee! It never ends!

So, what would you do? Email me at Enzian@dvdfile.com .