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Re: Major hack attack on the U.S. Senate



Actually what they did was illegal regardless of the cause. Hopefully they realized that storing anything on a shared piece of hardware will subject it to the possibility of attacks due to human failure. Human failure is a major contributor to computer exploits and the one constant in the considerations for computer security.

---K

Brian C. Lane wrote:

On Thu, 2004-01-22 at 09:25, Richard M. Smith wrote:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/01/22/infiltration_of_files_
seen_as_extensive?mode=PF

Infiltration of files seen as extensive
Senate panel's GOP staff pried on Democrats
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff, 1/22/2004

WASHINGTON -- Republican staff members of the US Senate Judiciary Commitee
infiltrated opposition computer files for a year, monitoring secret strategy
memos and periodically passing on copies to the media, Senate officials told
The Globe.


[snip]

You left off the most important fact in your snip. The final paragraph
pretty well sums it up:

"A technician hired by the new judiciary chairman, Patrick Leahy,
Democrat of Vermont, apparently made a mistake that allowed anyone to
access newly created accounts on a Judiciary Committee server shared by
both parties -- even though the accounts were supposed to restrict
access only to those with the right password."

I sure wouldn't call this a major hack attack. Someone goofed. Someone
else took advantage of the goof (and according to some reports even
reported it to the bonehead technician).

One one hand you really shouldn't look at someone else's files. On the
other hand if you're cooking up dirty tricks you darn well ought to make
sure your memos are protected, not stored in the clear on a shared
system.

And these are the jokers who want to dictate to us how to secure the
Internet and stop SPAM? Heh!

Brian

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