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800 Break-ins at Dept. of Homeland Security

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the well-i-feel-safer-already dept.

WrongSizeGlass writes "Yahoo is reporting about the computer security nightmare going on at the Department of Homeland Security. Senior DHS officials admitted to Congress that over a two year period there were 800 hacker break-ins, virus outbreaks and in one instance, hacker tools for stealing passwords and other files were found on two internal Homeland Security computer systems. I guess it's true what they say ... a mechanic's car is always the last to get fixed."

4 of 276 comments (clear)

  1. Well, it makes sense by WindBourne · · Score: 5, Informative

    DHS was started by a number of folks from the marines (I worked for one). They were ALL windows believers ( but the ones that I knew were very so-so in the tech work). They were adamant about not being like NSA in spite of the fact that NSA has 2 missions; 1) obtain any info that they can on others 2) secure our boxes. NSA has a LARGE number of mathematicians as well as computer geeks. And windows is only allowed in none secured arenas or have their network capability severed at a hardware level (i.e. no nic or usb). If DHS had been ran by professionals and not politicians from the military (ALL of the tops one were W.s, Cheney's and esp. Rumsfeld's friend), then they would not have had the break-ins.

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    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  2. Re:Homeland Security != Information Security by Johnny+Mnemonic · · Score: 4, Informative

    Part of their mandate and jurisdiction is Information Security; they are charged with protecting the computing infrastructure of the country.

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  3. Homeland Security means: by droopycom · · Score: 4, Informative

    TSA (Not covered by CIA, FBI or other Law Enforcement)
    FEMA
    Customs and Border Protection
    Immigration (Former INS)
    Secret Service (Not covered by CIA, FBI or any other Law Enforcement)
    Coast Guards (Not covered by CIA, FBI or other Law Enforcement)

    I'm no fan of them, but how about you take a look at their website if you want to know what they are supposed to do:

    http://www.dhs.gov/xabout/structure/editorial_0644 .shtm

  4. Re:Homeland Security != Information Security by encino · · Score: 4, Informative

    I am assuming you mean S&T, not DHS overall. Science & Technology is the primary research and development arm of the Department - we're different from other science-related organizations like NIH, NSF, etc., in that our work must have clear line-of-sight to security applications. Not to say we don't have some focus in the basic sciences, but rather to say that it's only about a 20% focus. We also have a portion of our research budget that goes to high-risk things that will probably fail. Thankfully our leadership hear in S&T understands that in science, you need to have at least some fraction of your research portfolio 'on the edge' - that's where you find the home-runs, and not always in the 'safe' stuff. This is hard to defend though, since Congress doesn't hearing that you're spending research dollars on 'risky' projects expected to fail. In addition to research, the 'T' in S&T means that we develop technologies for the first responders and other users (i.e., interoperable radios and communication, Chemical and Biological detectors, other miscellaneous cool widgets, etc.) You may also (correctly) guess that any significant effort to prevent terrorist use of WMD requires top-notch scientific and technical expertise as well, so we do a lot of WMD-related work. Hope that helps.