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Computer Security Lacking at Homeland Security
peter303 writes "The New York Times (reg. required) reports that computer backup procedures are woefully inadequate at 19 centers of the Department of Homeland Security. Should this agency strive to be good example for the rest of the country and protect against extreme hackers? " From the article: "Adequate backups were lacking for networks that screen airline passengers, that inspect goods moving across borders and that communicate with department employees and outside officials.
Those same agencies, the auditors found, have in most cases failed to prepare sufficiently written disaster recovery plans that would guide operations if a main office or computer system was knocked out."
WTF are "Extreme hackers"?
People who crack Windows boxen while bungee jumping? Releasing IIS worms from a wi-fi enabled handheld in a canoe half-way down some whitewater rapids?
Or, y'know, just yet another pathetic attempt to make something fundamentally known and understood sound suddenly somehow exciting and dangerous?
Oh, and for reference? The "Extreme Hacker" your link's about was a 37 year-old script kiddie who Haxx0red Us government machines direct from his own home connection.
You couldn't get stupider (and less '1ee7) if you tried...
Everything in moderation, including moderation itself
Hey now, don't try and pressure them to reform. You know very well that if the Department of Homeland Security is forced to spend the resources to make its network more secure, the terrorists win. Do you really want the terrorists to win? Why do you hate America so much?
Sigur RÃs: I didn't know that Heaven had a rock band.
This reminds me of a story. I once worked for a company that specialized in tape backup software, name withheld. (I worked on Long Island then, not the on the plains of CHEYENNE, so don't try to guess the name of the company.) A few months after I stopped working there, I received a phone call from my ex-manager that went something like this:
Mgr: So how's it going? Blah blah blah...
Me: It's fine. Blah blah blah...
Mgr: So..um..did you ever "borrow" a copy of the source code to the Disaster Recovery solution that you single-handedly wrote? You know, for "posterity" reasons?
Me: Of course I didn't. That wouldn't be ethical for sure and probably would be illegal. Why do you ask?
Mgr: Well, it seems that the hard drive that your machine used crashed and we don't have a backup.