On Tuesday, the House of Representatives held a hearing on the impact that peer-to-peer file sharing could have on matters of national security. The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by Henry Waxman, (D-CA) took testimony from a number of representatives from government agencies like the Federal Trade Commission, The US Patent and Trademark Office, and the Department of Transportation, as well as private individuals including Mark Gorton, CEO of The Lime Group, maker of LimeWire.

The hearing was called to air congressional concerns regarding the privacy of confidential data held by the Federal government and the ease with which peer-to-peer file sharing programs can cause a user to make all files on a computer available for sharing inadvertently. Earlier this year, the Department of Transportation encountered such a breach when the daughter of a DOT employee who sometimes telecommutes loaded LimeWire onto the employee's home computer, exposing DOT documents as well as information from the National Archives. None of the DOT documents that were exposed contained private or confidential information.

Some in Congress are considering new legislation to curb the use of peer-to-peer network software on government computers, or computers used by government workers, and to determine departmental responses to accidental security breaches.

Gorton, who testified before the Committee, came under fire for the ease with which LimeWire can be misconfigured to share all information on a computer. Gorton defended LimeWire, but the Committee members made it clear that they are seriously considering the regulation of peer-to-peer networking, claiming that it poses an ongoing threat to national security. This is not the first time that Congress has considered placing restrictions on peer-to-peer networking.