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US Military 'Hacked' by Emails
An anonymous reader writes "Two of the US Military's most important science labs were apparently 'hacked'. Phishing mail was sent to a pair of research labs, where trojan programs allowed interlopers access to the otherwise secure networks. One of the sites was the infamous Los Alamos, which has been discussed many times here at Slashdot for its string of security breaches. 'Los Alamos has a checkered security history, having suffered a sequence of embarrassing breaches in recent years. In August of this year, it was revealed that the lab had released sensitive nuclear research data by email, while in 2006 a drug dealer was allegedly found with a USB stick containing data on nuclear weapons tests. "This appears to be a new low, even drug dealers can get classified information out of Los Alamos," Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), said at the time. Two years earlier, the lab was accused of having lost hard disks.'"
Unclassified networks get viruses and trojans often, this is not really news. Nor is it "omg huge security breach" that an unclassified network would get a virus. That is the the whole reason classified and unclassified networks and physically separated.
This simply further illustrates the need for better IT proffessionals. Most IT departments are looked at like maintence departments(In non IT firms). Something they are REQUIRED to have but not greatly to there advantage. Yes we introduce newer better software to increase productivity but we do it at a cost. So when it comes to IT security the budget is always smaller then should be. No one wants to pay more for the janitors to clean the locks every week. The locks still require keys and that is good enough. No one cares that the locks can be picked in 2 seconds.. as long it needs a key its fine. The same with IT. No one cares that you can be hacked because you send all you're data through unencrypted ethernet and that same network segment has a wifi-AP. You can't access either without a username or password.. right?!
So basically, -1 troll/offtopic is really slashdots way of saying "I hate that you thought of something before me."
Both labs in question are actually U.S. Department of Energy, not Department of Defense. Technically, they're not "military" labs.
More to the point, if they were military labs, the schlubs responsible for the security cockups would have been in the brig and awaiting a court-martial long ago. The knowledge that your "employer" can clap you in prison and then have you shot for almost a trivial incident is, to borrow a phrase, tremendously attention-focusing.
Yeah, yeah, I know, nuclear weapons and technology, blah, blah, blah... but really. Historically, these labs have always been run a little bit like the average academic research lab at any mainline university, and the stereotypes about egghead scientist types hating military-style regimentation (including security processes) rings very true. Read up about the Manhattan Project. (Which is fitting, since these labs are the direct descendants of that program.)
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
Wait. Is public knowledge good or bad this week?
Actually conspiracy theorists are more like trolls. They take advantage of the gullible nature of most people.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
It doesn't necessarily come from that article--which thankfully does make the distinction--it could have just been a guess based on knowledge of how these things are set up.
Integrate Keynote and LaTeX
Actually, if you weren't an idiot trolling, you'd realize that the vast majority of foreign researchers in the US are in the country by virtue of the O1 visa, not the H1. This visa requires documentation and proof that the person is a world-renowned expert in their field, possesses world-class skills in the arts or sciences, and in short is nothing short of an absolutely unique and brilliant individual.
Or would you rather leave all those Pakistani, Chinese, and other brilliant scientists in their homelands, helping their repressive regimes?
Some would argue that the purpose of scientific progress is the advancement of the human race. Not just advancement of those members of the human race who happen to live within the borders of the U.S. of A.
Frankly, I'd rather the government spend tax money on this than on "securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries". The second is far too easily abused by the MPAA/RIAA (notice how long copyright terms are now? Notice the DMCA?).
OSx86 FTW
I'm more of the mind that we should share information freely because a rising tide moves all ship, but move money out of military budgets and into social programs.
Blar.