DOD blocks 12 popular Internet sites to protect grid Published May 14, 2007 By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- Defense Department officials are blocking access to many popular Internet sites from department-owned computers due to bandwidth issues, U.S. Strategic Command officials said May 14. Joint Task Force Global Network Operations members, who direct the operation and defense of DOD's global information grid to assure timely and secure capabilities in support of the department's warfighting, intelligence, and business missions, blocked 12 popular sites on government computers beginning May 14. The sites are: youtube.com, pandora.com, photobucket.com, myspace.com, live365.com, hi5.com, metacafe.com, mtv.com, ifilm.com, blackplanet.com, stupidvideos.com and filecabi.com. The popularity of the sites has not affected operations yet, but blocking them prevents them from causing such a problem, officials said. "It is a proactive measure. We do not want a problem with demand for these sites clogging the networks," a U.S. Strategic Command official said. The blocks affect only DOD computers and local area networks that are part of the department's global information grid. The department has more than 15,000 local and regional networks and more than 5 million computers in the grid. Department officials said they are not making a judgment about the sites. Blocking the sites "is in no way a comment on the content, purpose or uses of the Web sites themselves," the official said. "It is solely a bandwidth/network management issue." Offices with a need to access these sites from government computers can request exceptions to the policy. Global network operations officials will continue to assess the stresses and strains on the global information grid, and may add or subtract sites as needed, officials said.