[LINK] itNews: 'Parliament repeals .info filter'

[Roger Clarke]

Back on Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:30 +1100:
>Parliament quietly blocks .info domains
>John Hilvert
>itNews
>Feb 13, 2012 12:40 PM (19 hours ago)
>http://www.itnews.com.au/News/290150,parliament-quietly-blocks-info-domains.aspx


Parliament repeals .info filter
John Hilvert
Feb 29, 2012 3:52 PM (16 hours ago)
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/292103,parliament-repeals-info-filter.aspx

The Department of Parliamentary Services has re-instated internal 
access to 5.2 million websites with the .info top-level domain after 
concerns over the internal filter were made public.

The block, imposed on October 22 last year on advice from the Defence 
Signals Directorate, affected all officers, ministers and senators in 
Parliament House.

Though a blanket ban on all .info sites, the department had granted 
requests to access some 68 websites on the domain since the filter 
was put in place.

The office of department acting secretary, David Kenny, told ITnews 
that "the block has indeed been lifted".

Timing and reasons for unblocking the websites were not given at time 
of writing.

However, staff at the office of Greens senator Scott Ludlam reported 
the parliamentary block was lifted a fortnight ago.

They said Senator Ludlam's office had been made aware of the block 
being lifted sometime after the senator raised concerns in Estimates 
earlier this month.

"It was private correspondence stating that the [department] had 
looked at Senator Ludlam's concerns raised in estimates and that the 
block had been lifted," one staff member told iTnews.

Kenny had told a Senate committee in October that the block was put 
in place as the "domain is generally considered to be a source of 
more than its fair share of attacks and malicious software".


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Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/
			            
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Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law               University of NSW
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