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Crackers Cause Pentagon to Put Computers Offline

Anarchysoft writes "As many as 1500 Pentagon computers were brought offline on Wednesday in response to a cyber attack. Defense Secretary Robert Gates reported of the fallout both that the attack had 'no adverse impact on department operations' and that 'there will be some administrative disruptions and personal inconveniences.' When asked whether his own e-mail had been compromised, Gates responded, 'I don't do e-mail. I'm a very low-tech person.'"

34 of 260 comments (clear)

  1. Keyboard Infestation by pipingguy · · Score: 5, Funny

    I recommend a less-crumbly type of snack, like carrot sticks or celery. Dip is right out.

    1. Re:Keyboard Infestation by It'sYerMam · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm handing in my geek card. I actually thought this story was referring to food.

      --
      im in ur .sig, writin ur memes.
    2. Re:Keyboard Infestation by Dahamma · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm handing in my geek card. I actually thought this story was referring to food.

      That's ok, you were closer than me, I thought it meant that honkeys took over the Pentagon!

    3. Re:Keyboard Infestation by danpsmith · · Score: 3, Funny

      That's ok, you were closer than me, I thought it meant that honkeys took over the Pentagon!

      I don't know how to break this to you but...they already had.

      --
      Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold.
    4. Re:Keyboard Infestation by Superpants · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yes, I read the title as well and assumed a couple of things: Mainly being that these pentagon types really like crackers and secondly, they must really have been good crackers. A scenario flashed through my head where some intern or something brought in some Triscuits, which are really good crackers, and then all the cracker crazed regulars started fighting over the remnants which got every where. Then a number of fights broke out and eventually someone tripped over a power cord, dislodging it from the socket causing unpleasantness. The person tripping over the power cord, having been the only one authorized to handle electricity and the outlets to which they stream from fell on his face knocking out several teeth. He was rushed to emergency dental surgery and left all the other cracker hungry workers without someone to plug the cord back in. Voila!

    5. Re:Keyboard Infestation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Wuj you talkin bout Willis?!?!

    6. Re:Keyboard Infestation by Master+of+Transhuman · · Score: 2, Funny


      The one time somebody uses the term "cracker" vs "hacker" correctly (supposedly) and everybody at /. doesn't understand it.

      You can't make this stuff up, folks.

      And here we find out Gates "doesn't do email." I thought Andrea Corr was technologically illiterate when she admitted only learning how to do email in fall of 2005 (sister Caroline told her, "Don't tell people that!").

      But here we have more evidence of the nature of managers - reflecting the joke from the publishing world many years ago. A publisher and his editor entered an elevator. The editor was carrying an armload of bags and manuscripts. The publisher wasn't. The publisher pointed to the editor: "You, editor. Me, publisher."

      Flunkies do email and bring the results to the people with the real power.

      Feudalism lives.

      --
      Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
  2. i guess it's true, then by zaunuz · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...that the hairdresser's hair is the one with the ugliest haircut.

    --
    this is probably the most boring sig in the world
  3. Not to worry by stox · · Score: 2, Funny

    That hacker will never figure out what to do with the launch codes to the continental ICBM inventory. On the other hand, can you imagine a nuclear attack being started from an iPhone?

    --
    "To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
    1. Re:Not to worry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      or from a young man and his computer playing a simple game of Tic-Tac-Toe

    2. Re:Not to worry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      The launch codes are easy to figure out. The hard part is working out which TLA (three letter acronym) correlates to the correct MLS (missile launch system) for FTN (firing the nukes).

  4. Re:Gates onto something?? by Icarus1919 · · Score: 5, Funny

    You're right, nothing could ever go wrong having someone physically carrying a message.

  5. Uh oh by A+beautiful+mind · · Score: 3, Funny

    Another slashdot meme in the making?

    "I don't do $technology, I'm a very low-tech person."

    --
    It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
    Be yourself no matter what they say
    1. Re:Uh oh by Belacgod · · Score: 2, Funny

      In soviet russia, emails don't use you!

    2. Re:Uh oh by gbobeck · · Score: 2, Funny

      I, for one, welcome our new low tech non-email using overlords.

      --
      Navicula hydraulica plena anguilarum est. Omnes castelli tuus nostri sunt. Ed elli avea del cul fatto trombetta.
    3. Re:Uh oh by Mike89 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Another slashdot meme in the making?

      "I don't do $technology, I'm a very low-tech person."

      I don't do Slashdot memes, I'm a very low-tech person.
  6. Bad news, sir... by Dirtside · · Score: 4, Funny

    Scene: Secretary Gates's office - dawn

    A PERSISTENT BEEPING breaks the stillness.

    SECRETARY GATES stumbles in from an adjoining room, bleary-eyed. Another all-nighter of trying to keep the world safe for democracy.

    SECRETARY GATES: What the blazes is it now?

    He picks up his Big Red Phone.

    SECRETARY GATES: Gates here. What is it?

    TECH #1: Sir! This is Collins at Central. We've got a situation -- massive DOS, widely distributed. One of the worst yet.

    SECRETARY GATES: Damn! Tell me it's not--

    TECH #1: Bad news, sir. It's your brother.

    BILL GATES: Mwa ha ha ha!

    SECRETARY GATES: Curse you, Bill! What infernal scheme have you cooked up now?

    BILL GATES: By making Windows insecure and ensuring its worldwide adoption, I now have an army of millions of zombie computers at my disposal! I will instruct them to PERMANENTLY destroy your computer network unless you pay me... <pinky>one hundred BEEEELLYON dollars!</pinky>

    SECRETARY GATES: But... you already have billions of dollars!

    BILL GATES: Yes, but Mother always liked you better, so now I'm overcompensating. Top of the world, ma!

    JAMES CAGNEY'S GHOST: Cut that out!

    --
    "Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
  7. Re:yarr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Claiming a fifth post would have been on topic.

  8. Re:oh lord by macdaddy357 · · Score: 4, Funny

    The dude who pulled this off was black! But The Man will never give credit for something this big to a brother.

    --
    How ya like dat?
  9. Hackers today are jokers by freedom_india · · Score: 2, Funny

    I agree. Hackers today are not ParMasters of yesteryears.
    I guess they were just looking to recruit more zombies for their credit card scams and by mistake they stumbled upon the DoD unsecure network.
    Heck, half the jokers (who call themselves hackers) can't even expand the acronym ICBM in full. And i bet $100 that one of the words in their expansion would be either International or Business.

    The DoD is fretting unnecessarily.
    A whole generation has already been dumbed down by McDonalds, Pepsi and KFC, not to mention Desperate Housewives, Paris Hilton, Britney's head antics etc.
    So the worst these jokers can do is to filch the CC numbers of some DoD officials and buy some "close massage services" or buy fle$hlight.

    Today's jokers are more interested in earning serious money quickly and buy a Lamby or an Aston-Martin or an iPhone atleast.

    Lameduck attacks against a lameduck department.

    Its like one ant colony waging war against another ant colony 10 yards away while humans watch it amusingly...

    --
    "Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
    1. Re:Hackers today are jokers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      shut the fuck up or i bring your tv set offline for good so you'll smarten up a bit.

    2. Re:Hackers today are jokers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I hope that was a joke, because if it wasn't, you're probably the most retarded hacker I've ever met. Television sets aren't online.

  10. Re:Gate's quote by Belacgod · · Score: 3, Funny

    The $600 hammer was explained thusly: A box of miscellaneous parts, including some very expensive high-tech items and some cheap low-tech ones (like hammers), was shipped. By the accounting rules, each item is assigned an identical part of the shipping and processing costs. So the hammer cost like $10, plus $590 in processing, while there were $5000 items in there that also had $590 in processing assigned to them. Some idiot soldier opened the box, saw the invoice, and called his congressman.

  11. "Handheld Blackkberries" by xhydra · · Score: 3, Funny

    Employees whose computers were affected could still use their 'handheld BlackBerries'. OMG that means hackers compromised the Desktop Blackberries

    --
    "Drawing closer to world domination, keystroke by keystroke."
  12. Re:Gate's quote by Centurix · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you're a member of the military with some rank, shouting is a much more effective mode of communication. I imagine Microsoft producing specialized keyboards for the military, such as the MS Multimedia Sergeant Keyboard, which defaults to caps lock being always on.

    --
    Task Mangler
  13. Re:Gates onto something?? by Divebus · · Score: 4, Funny

    The best security is not having the damn wires there in the first place.

    Ahhh yes... the air-gap firewall - works better than anything.

    I'm sure Cisco has one for $40,000 they can sell the DHS (empty box with two RJ-45s). They need it.

    --

    Most of the stuff on /. won't survive first contact with facts.
  14. Re:Gates onto something?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    > General Joffre, commander of the French forces, refused to use the telephone... It is believed that he feared his words being recorded on the other end without his knowledge.

    So did Don Vito di Corleone, our beloved godfather.

  15. OMG by yogurtforthesoul · · Score: 1, Funny

    As a Caucasian I find the whole article racist!

    --
    Something witty goes here.
  16. cracker? by chenjeru · · Score: 3, Funny

    How did they know it was pasty white guys?

    --
    Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. - Will Rogers
  17. Re:Gates onto something?? by commodoresloat · · Score: 4, Funny

    The best security is not having the damn wires there in the first place. Exactly. Wi-fi is the only safe way to transfer information safely. Get rid of the wires and we can all relax. And if you can't have wireless, at least make sure there's more space than a nomad. What were we talking about again?
  18. Re:Gates onto something?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Mr Gates probably gets more done (as do I, in fact) by picking up the phone. Is that before during or after reading /.?

  19. Oblig Onion Article by LanMan04 · · Score: 2, Funny

    http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29023

    "Evil Genius Gates Drops Windows 98 Into NYC Water Supply"

    Man do I love The Onion. SFW.

    --
    With the first link, the chain is forged.
  20. Re:Gates onto something?? by Bent+Mind · · Score: 2, Funny

    My boss, at my previous place of employment, was also the owner. He had a standard saying that he used in these situations, "Shit, you did exactly what I asked. What were you thinking?"

    --
    Request a Linux Shockwave player here: http://www.macromedia.com/support/email/wishform/
  21. Re:If anything can go wrong.... by Geekbot · · Score: 2, Funny

    I thought that was Echelon?