November 07, 2005 Navy Goes On Email Defensive By Antone Gonsalves, TechWeb Courtesy of The Navy is no longer allowing sailors access to commercial E-mail services because they pose a security risk to its networks. The decision, which affects services provided by America Online, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and others, applies to military and civilian personnel on ships or ashore in the United States and overseas. The action was taken in order to prevent viruses or other malicious software from getting into the Navy's network, which is used to carry information related to Naval operations, as well as administrative work. "With commercial Web-mail standards we don't know the exact level of protection and whether it meets the Navy's standards for network security," Ron Steiner, public affairs officer for the Naval Network Warfare Command, Norfolk, Va., says. "It just makes our job of protecting the network that much harder." The Navy's network is separate from the Department of Defense's classified network, which isn't accessible to most military personnel, Steiner says. The Navy network, along with other military branches, is connected to the Department of Defense's Global Information Grid, which a hacker could possibly enter if a Navy computer was compromised. Network users still have access to the Navy's E-mail system and will be able to receive and respond to messages from people using commercial services. They also can access other services on commercial Web portals, such as search or blogging. E-mail This Story Print This Story Get the latest Messaging news, product info, and trends every week.			AXS-One, OnSite E-Discovery Partner To Combine Compliance, Document Retention, E-Discovery And Litigation Support Spyware And Adware Continue To Plague PCs Morgan Stanley Muddles Through An E-Mail Mess Ignoring E-Mail Is A Sure Way To Lose Business Social Networking Connects For Business FTC Smacks Spammer With $900K Fine     Messaging Pipeline's Main RSS Feed     Messaging Pipeline's Blog RSS Feed Editorial and vendor perspectives The Six Flavors Of Windows Vista Microsoft plans to release a full six-pack of Vista versions, one for every taste. Which Vista will be right for you? Hope is Not Enough When It Comes To Compliance Three Ways To Authenticate E-Mail And Stop Spam Wikis In The Workplace Review: Google Desktop 3 Vendors are now talking about how collaboration can be improved by integrating video with messaging applications. They're even talking about adding live TV to mobile phones. How far do you go before it becomes a bandwidth and business productivity drain? Video is a great idea     13% Video is fine but there needs to be size limits     25% It's never used for anything really productive     38% I draw the line at live TV     25% In search of messaging products? Check out our brand new Product Finder for a directory of groupware and collaboration tools, security products, archiving solutions, and more.