As the federal government recently learned, there’s an easy way for employees at any business to leak sensitive information into the wrong hands.

The security threat: peer-to-peer (P2P) networking. P2P networks are normally used to share files like music and movies (and often illegally). But some users may inadvertently be sharing everything on their hard drive with the public.

And many may be doing it at work.

That’s apparently the case in the federal government, as legislators met recently to discuss a bill that would ban file-sharing software from all government computers and networks, the Washington Post reports.

Tiversa, a company that scours file-sharing networks to find security holes, recently uncovered several security leaks on the government’s network.

Among the info made available to any file-sharing user: photos of a mafia hitman taken while he was on trial, a list of people with HIV, the location of a safe-house for then first lady Laura Bush, motorcade routes and the names of some people in a witness protection program.

Maybe the ban on P2P software in federal offices is a good idea — and private companies may be wise to follow suit.

Tags: filesharing, P2P