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Border Security System Left Open

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the on-a-need-to-patch-basis dept.

7x7 writes "Wired News is running an article on documents they recovered via the Freedom of Information Act and a lawsuit. From the article:" A computer failure that hobbled border-screening systems at airports across the country last August occurred after Homeland Security officials deliberately held back a security patch that would have protected the sensitive computers from a virus then sweeping the internet, according to documents obtained by Wired News." It looks like Zotob made it in to the supposedly protected network."

2 of 195 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Normal windows operations by LurkerXXX · · Score: 1, Redundant
    the administrators dont trust the patch (cant see what it exactly does) so need to test

    I hope that doesn't mean you think OS admins should patch away without testing, just because the code is available.

    First of all, lots of admins aren't programmers. They might know some code, but for most of them, looking at a patch to some arcane TCP/IP code isn't going to be very easy to interpret. If it's a patch to a bug that got by the original coders, there's not that good of likelihood a typical administrator is going to find any flaw that might be in the patch, possibly changing it's interaction with something else on the system.

    OSS patches have been released before that were re-patched in subsequent days.

    Open Source is no excuse for not testing patches before updating production machines.

  2. typo by dotpavan · · Score: 0, Redundant

    line 2: Fomr the article: