US tries to shield secrete data

The US government announced steps to clamp down on who can access classified information, seeking to avert another WikiLeaks-scale breach of military documents and diplomatic cables.The presidential order requires U.S. agencies to appoint senior people to prevent and detect breaches and creates a task force to monitor potential wrongdoing by government officials, bureaucrats, diplomats or soldiers handling classified data.That task force, to be headed by the attorney general and director of national intelligence, will set out government-wide policies to prevent data theft and establish binding standards within a year, the White House said, announcing the plans.Officials familiar with the issue who examined the new anti-leak proposals said most of them were fairly predictable and obvious as a cyber-security response.WikiLeaks’ acquisition last year of more than 250,000 State Department cables embarrassed the US government and infuriated officials from Mexico to Italy angry at seeing US diplomats unvarnished, and often critical, comments about them.The White House stressed that government bodies have already made it harder for people to copy classified material onto USB sticks or other storage devices, as US Army Private Bradley Manning allegedly did to make off with highly sensitive diplomatic data.