OMB: No peeking at the leaking

Budget

OMB: No peeking at the leaking

Federal employees are being warned not to look at documents leaked by WikiLeaks website,

Federal News Network Staff

December 6, 2010 7:27 am

1 min read

By Amy Morris
Executive Editor/Anchor
FederalNewsRadio

By now most federal workers are aware that they need to stay away from Wikileaks.

But just in case there was any question, the White House Office of Management and Budget has sent out a memo forbidding unauthorized feds and contractors from accessing classified documents that are available on Wikileaks, and now on other websites.

The memo says that just because the documents were published doesn’t alter their classified status. So if you’re not authorized to look at them, don’t.

The memo does allow for reading of articles about the cables on media sites.

Meanwhile, CNN reports that the State Department is warning its staff to not confirm the authenticity of any of the published documents.

The Department of Defense and the Library of Congress have blocked access to the WikiLeaks website from their computers and instructed their employees not to read the documents published by the website.

Finally, published reports indicate that graduate students at several universities are being warned not to read or post links to WikiLeaks documents, or they could automatically fail security screenings and be denied work with the federal government. The State Department denies having anything to do with that, saying that their instructions are for federal employees and contractors only.