Air Force: No Security, No 'Net

If you're a soldier or a civilian working for the Defense Department, it's becoming harder and harder to do anything online. There's no YouTube, MySpace or even reading blogs for some. Now, for airmen at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, there's no Internet at all.

As Wired's Danger Room blog reports, folks at the base " 'hadn't demonstrated -- in our view at the headquarters -- their capacity to manage their network in a way that didn't make everyone else vulnerable,' Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz tells InsideDefense.com. 'This is the kind of effort that's required up and down the line.' "

"The Internet shutdown at the Alabama base was in response to a specific, 'significant' intrusion that threatened the entire service's networks, according to Schwartz," Inside Defense reported.

Other Air Force bases are subject to the same Internet blackout if headquarters deems information security is lax. One wonders what security vulnerabilities would trigger an Internet shutdown.