3 December 2010

Commerce Department Blackballs Wikileaks

A sends:

From: allstaff@nist.gov [allstaff@nist.gov] On Behalf Of Broadcast, DOC [broadcast@doc.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2010 11:11 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Guidance regarding WikiLeaks

To: All Commerce Employees and Contractors

Recent reports indicate that a number of government documents have been 
posted on the WikiLeaks website.  These documents may or may not contain 
information that is considered National Security Information (classified 
information) and as such, the information is NOT authorized for 
downloading, viewing, printing, processing, copying, or transmitting via 
non-classified Government-issued computers, laptops, blackberries, or 
other communication devices and is not an authorized use of DOC IT 
equipment.  Doing so would introduce potentially classified information 
onto our unclassified networks and represent a potential security 
incident.

There has been a rumor that the information is no longer classified since 
it resides in the public domain.  This is NOT true.  Executive Order 
13526, Section I.1(4)(2) states "Classified Information shall not be 
declassified automatically as a result of any unauthorized disclosure of 
identical or similar information."  The information was neither properly 
nor improperly "declassified" by the appropriate authority and requires 
continued classification or reclassification.

Please do not attempt to access any of the WikiLeaks documents via the 
WikiLeaks website or through other websites hosting those documents 
because these documents may contain classified information.  Accessing the 
WikiLeaks documents will lead to sanitization of your PC to remove any 
potentially classified information from the system and result in possible 
data loss.

If you have questions regarding this broadcast or have accessed the 
WikiLeaks documents, please contact the DOC Computer Incident Response 
Team at email doc-cirt@doc.gov or call (202) 482-4000.
________________________________________________________________
This message was authorized by the Office of Secretary OSY/OCIO.

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