4 ms·

So you're saying the site was commonly used by government workers for legit purposes? There wasn't some internal, more secure tool for this?

• TheCapn 15y ago
  >There wasn't some internal, more secure tool for this? Depends on who you ask. Now I can't speak for US Gov't but at my job files that are too big for email get dumped onto an FTP server. This is only because I knew to ask if we had an FTP server for such uses. I can certainly see my coworkers attempting to send a 150MB file, getting the error then immediately hitting Google for a workaround instead of asking the helpdesk for options.
• maaku 15y ago
  There probably was an internal tool, but it was also probably too complicated and convoluted to use. I don't work at DOJ or the Senate, but at my agency (NASA) there is a "large file transfer tool". It requires an obscure login with inane password requirements (and short expirations, so passwords expire more often than people probably use the tool), and the site can only be accessed from behind the firewall, making it useless for sharing files while on travel or with contracting organizations and collaborators at universities. The result? Nobody uses it. Thankfully the organization I work at has our own security plan, so we created our own large-file tool that was easier to use. Before that people would give me (the web developer) a file to upload to an obscure URL on our web server, since that was easier and more reliable than dealing with the approved NASA solution. If I wasn't there I could totally see them using megaupload or something similar instead.