Slashdot Mirror
U.S. Interior Dept. Unplugged... Again
IO ERROR writes "The U.S. District Court ordered the Department of Interior to take all its systems offline for the third time, saying that its systems were too insecure to be left open. Among the systems to go offline are those that process payments owed to American Indians and Internet access in schools on Indian reservations. DOI employees cannot use the Web or send or receive e-mail."
DOI employees cannot use the Web or send or receive e-mail.
:)
*thinks about what he does at work*
So they're letting everybody go home early then?
...as reported by internet.com. Interestingly it seems that even the previous time was not really the first?
"For the second time in less than two years, a federal judge has ordered the Interior Department to disconnect from the Internet in order to protect $1 billion in American Indian money managed by the agency.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said Interior's refusal to cooperate with a court-appointed master who wanted to test the security of Interior's systems, prompted the decision. The government claimed it did not cooperate with Security Assurance Group of Annapolis, Md., because they could not agree on the "rules of engagement."
Why would systems with access to funds be connected directly to the net? No system with that level of risk should ever be connected to the net unless there's a damn good reason. Even online banking webservers are throughouly isolated from the core banking systems. This is just sheer stupidity.
Trolling is a art,
There goes my sweet FTP server with the 0 day warez and the fat pipe!
Seems rather appropriate. What software are they running?
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
This is really sad. I first heard of the DOI's incredible mishandling of the Indian trust here on slashdot a few years ago when they were shut down the first time.
I can understand having problems recompiling literally centuries of data for tens of thousands of people. But c'mon, you can't figure out how to set up firewalls with VPN connections between disparate groups?
Could you imagine any private organization like a mutual fund or retirement investor leaving SSNs and customer information online on websites? Imagine the smack down from the government! But if it's the gov't itself nada. Thank god (or Great Spirit, whatever) that there's at least one judge willing to do the right thing.
I've been on slashdot so long I'm starting to get out of touch with the cool stuff if it ain't on slashdot.
Well, if you've ever contracted for the government, you'd know that trying to get anything done is close to impossible. Any step you take has to be combed through by several beurocrats who have no more interest in anything other than plodding through their days on the way to retirement. Even if you do manage to get all of the systems designed and get ready to roll the upgrades out, someone will just come along and axe the plan while they try to figure out if this move will make them risk their neck in the slightest.
Trying to work for people who essentially can't be fired is a nightmare.
slashdot, news for crazed liberal socialist zealots
That's cool. We'll just keep the casino money.
"The Interior Department said the order "is a new frontier in this court's efforts to run the operations of executive branch agencies."
//
"We are working closely with the Department of Justice to quickly respond to this order in the appropriate legal venue," the agency said in a faxed statement.
It's a political thing. Probably not much of a technical problem here at all. Somebody's making a move for power somewhere and now all of this BS. They are punishing the Interior by taking down links with schools on them rather than just blocking traffic via access lists and firewalls.
If they really had a problem with some of the services being provided as insecure they could have either firewalled those services or just blocked them at the router. Since, they did not take a rational approach to solving the problem, the problem is likely a political one from one greybearded idiot to another.
Been a consultant for the government. Seen it. I once went almost 4 months doing nothing but earning good money while waiting for the Chicago Tollway to resolve some political infighting. 4 months of sitting at home, watching TV and basically chilling out on Illinois tax dollars.
It was lovely.
Looks like the Interior Department has been having computer problems for a long time (December 2001!):
"Web wanderers looking for information on national parks, government mapping services or geological disasters will need to get their information from non-official websites for a while.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth issued the order late Wednesday after a report showed that the computer system which handles $500 million annually in royalties from Indian land has major security holes that make it easy to access the system, alter records and possibly divert funds."
You don't really understand what happened do you?
Firstly, there is no Indian "race" or "nation" that was in conflict with the United States.
There were many conflicts with many tribes and there are many settlements which differ in scope and letter of the agreement.
Since the closing of the Frontier in 1890 and the end of major military action with the American Indians around the same time the rights of the American Indians have changed and the role of the government in thier lives has changed.
The crux of this arguement between the DOI/BIA and the folks suing them isn't about monetarily reimbursing for "or practically annahilating their race" it's about mismangement of natural resources on lands which are on Reservations or were on Reservations which are held in trust by the United States Government who act as stewards of the resources, both discovered and undiscovered.
Basicly the DOI/BIA has lost billions of dollars of money that should have been paid out to various tribes and various private citizens. Not only that, but they can't figure out a webserver that holds confidental information on the monies going out to private citizens that can't be exploited.
"(g) No Refusal Gift Acceptance Policy
All Department of the Interior employees may accept gifts offered to them by representatives of Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Organizations, Insular and foreign governments when refusal to accept such gifts would be likely to cause offense or embarrassment or otherwise adversely affect relations with the United States."
You'd be surprised what people will just throw in the trash.
You need to read "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feyman." Feyman raids the safes that contain the plans for the atomic bomb repeatedly, both for entertainment and to get work done faster. He walks through a hole in the fence around Los Alamos repeatedly, always exiting through the gate. The guard doesn't catch on until he's done it many times.
I was able to get almost anywhere in my university dorms with a penknife, despite locked doors at the end of every hall.
The problem with locks and guard and secure areas is that they're so visually impressive, it's easy to assume that they will work. With bicycle couriers and janitors moving around all the time, workers get used to unfamiliar faces and forget to check ID.
Which is why secured government facilities are required to shred all classified documents. And as for Mr. Feynman's legendary escapades, Los Alamos was recently severely upbraided by the DOE for its lax security.
Most government facilities have the lowest level of classified information ("Secret"). Very few have "Top Secret" or higher. And even with Secret, there are very extensive procedures in place in terms of document storage, personnel access, etc.; you're not going to be able to get in with a penknife, leastways not when the document is in a 2-ton graphite safe with 70-point rotary dial behind an armed guard gate.
And as for the guy who found a 10-Base T hub? Dude. That's nothing. We throw old junk away all the time. I just threw 5 Betacam SP decks, worth about $6000 each, in the trash last week. Remember, the agencies can't sell equipment; only the GSA sells surplus, and that's at auction. And it's not like the agencies get credit for turning stuff in. So there is no financial incentive for the agencies to save old equipment, and the paperwork is far too much of a hassle to deal with, just to get it transferred off the books to surplus. (You have to verify condition and certify it, blah blah blah.) So we just get it written off as damaged beyond repair, and toss it.
Believe me, I'd take the stuff home if I could, but then I'd technically be stealing. It has to be officially thrown away first.
God Bless America.