It's too bad it took Obama's helicopter plans being leaked to the Internet before it made the news. But how it gets escalated isn't important. In the article link below, security guru Ira Winkler emphasizes that most people don't know how to properly configure file sharing software safely, and don't realize what data files on their computers may end up being shared with other users on the Internet. Here is the link to the story from SC Magazine:

http://tinyurl.com/b2xq83

This push for legislation is primarily driven by the fact that some of the specifications for President Obama's helicopter, "Marine One", were apparently discovered on a P2P network. One would think this type of information should be guarded a little more closely.

I blogged a year or so ago about the Pfizer case where an employee's spouse used some music sharing software on the company laptop that had been taken home. The personal records of 15,000 Pfizer employees was sucked from the machine almost immediately by others on the Internet.

I now use this example in my Security Awareness training program.

Peer to Peer software (like Limewire, Kazaa, Morpheus, BitTorrent, etc.) should never be installed on company computers that have sensitive data on them, or which reside on a network that is critical to business operations.

Even with antivirus programs running, the computers on the network can easily become infected with dangerous malicous software that is hard to remove. You could also face expensive repair bills, and be out of service for extended periods of time.

An even better solution for company laptops is to "lock them down" so that users only have access to unprivileged (non-administrator) accounts, and can not install unauthorized software.

Finally, sensitive data residing on a laptop that is taken out of the office should always be encrypted. Passwords are not enough to prevent access to files on disks for anyone who knows how to remove them and insert them into another computer.