The Pentagon doesn't want its employees watching March Madness

Pentagon warns employees not to stream March Madness at work

Memo says watching games could overwhelm the shared network

The Department of Defense wants its workers to be cautious and not stream March Madness games on their work computers, for fears the network could be overwhelmed.

“March Madness is officially upon us,” the Joint Service Provider (JSP), wrote in an email obtained by CBS News. “Your JSP support team acknowledges and appreciates that college basketball fans within the DoD are excited to cheer on their favorite teams, update brackets, and otherwise obsess over the Big Dance.”

HOW TO WATCH THE NCAA TOURNAMENT WHILE AT WORK

The Joint Service Provider is responsible for handling the IT services for the Pentagon.

A Pentagon spokesman later verified the authenticity of the email with Fox News.

MILITARY PERSONNEL DATA LEAKED IN DUN & BRADSTREET DATABASE

Here’s the full email sent by JSP to Pentagon employees Wednesday, obtained by CBS News:

CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

JSP Notice: March Madness Video Streaming and Network Consumption

SUMMARY: March Madness is officially upon us. Your JSP support team acknowledges and appreciates that college basketball fans within the DoD are excited to cheer on their favorite teams, update brackets, and otherwise obsess over the Big Dance. In preparation for the event, JSP engineers will closely monitor bandwidth consumption and server availability to handle additional network strain as best as they can. However, it is important to remember that we share a single network and visiting non-mission essential websites degrades network performance for everyone.

Please keep in mind; if you’re streaming video to watch your favorite player shooting free throws, you’re consuming network resources that could be served to support the Warfighter.

If you experience any questions or concerns, please contact the JSP Service Desk for assistance.

Sincerely,

Joint Service Provider (JSP)

Communications