U.S. Army limits access to Web pages

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>
Date: July 9, 2004 3:25:24 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: U.S. Army limits access to Web pages

Hi,

The U.S. Army is playing interesting games to make it difficult to 
print and
copy Web pages from an Army Web site.  The attached Secrecy News article
gives the details.  I'm not sure the exact technical tricks which are 
being
used by the Army, but they look relatively effective.

Given that no Web page protection scheme works 100% of the time, a clean
version of the report can be found here:

   http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2004/onpoint/

I suspect that Steven Aftergood, the author of the Secrecy News 
article, is
not a JavaScript programmer.  There is nothing that extraordinary about
JavaScript code being used to block event handlers for operations like
printing and copying of Web pages.  Criminal types sometimes use similar
tricks to slow down prying eyes from investigating scam Web sites like 
those
used in phishing scams.  Perhaps the Army borrowed script code from one 
of
these Web sites. ;-)

Richard M. Smith
http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com

============================================================

http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/2004/07/070704.html

Source: SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2004, Issue No. 62
July 7, 2004
Steven Aftergood, saftergood () fas org

ARMY STUDY OF IRAQ WAR SUPPRESSED, RELEASED ON WEB

Despite extraordinary steps by the Army to limit online public
access to a new report on the Iraq war, the study has nevertheless
been published without the Army's cooperation.

The Army recently completed a book-length study of Operation Iraqi
Freedom entitled "On Point."  It is a revealing and fairly
critical account of lessons learned from the war.

Last month, the Center for Army Lessons Learned posted the study
here:

      http://onpoint.leavenworth.army.mil/

Incredibly, however, the web version of the Army document is coded
in such a way that it cannot be downloaded, or copied, or printed
out.  It must be read online at the Army site, or not at all.

...


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