A top official at the government agency charged with protecting America from incoming nuclear missiles recently had to order his employees to keep their eyes on the sky and off pornographic websites they had accessed on secure computers.
As first reported by Bloomberg News, Missile Defense Agency Executive Director John James Jr. wrote in a July 27 memo that employees and contractors had potentially put the security of the MDA network at risk by visiting unauthorized websites and watching, and sharing, sexually explicit content.
"These actions are not only unprofessional, they reflect time taken away from designated duties, are in clear violation of federal and DoD [Department of Defense] regulations, consume network resources and can compromise the security of the network though the introduction of malware or malicious code," he wrote. Those found in violation could potentially lose their security clearance, be suspended or dismissed from service at the MDA, the memo said, according to Bloomberg.
MDA spokesperson Rick Lehner told ABC News the agency-wide memo "reflects standard policy used by both government agencies and private industry" and said that of the 8,000-odd employees of the MDA, "less than a half-dozen" were involved in the alleged misconduct.
"Employees should not access inappropriate Internet sites for pornography, gambling, video games and unauthorized music and video sites, to name a few. If they do, there are consequences, including possible loss of security clearances and termination," he said.
Though pornography websites have a reputation for hosting malware that can potentially infect visitors' computers, Lehner said that at no time was the MDA network compromised.
"MDA has a highly-advanced monitoring system to detect intrusions, access to inappropriate websites, viruses and malware downloads, and it worked as designed," he said.
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