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Feds Now Allowed To Use Internet

Posted by samzenpus on from the welcome-to-the-web dept.

fast66 writes "Nextgov reports that a new court order allows the Department of the Interior to connect to the Internet, six years after the federal agency was ordered to disconnect. District Judge James Robertson wrote in his ruling, 'I find that the consent order is of no further use and must be vacated.' 'The ... disconnected offices and bureaus may be connected.' He added that his ruling was based not on evidence but 'on a legal conclusion that it is not my role to weigh IT security risks.'"

6 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. No internet connectivity since 2001? by Coopjust · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder if they'll update the machines beforehand. Anyone remember how long it takes for a Pre-SP2 copy of Windows without a good AV and firewall takes to get a worm? Minutes?

    In all seriousness, I hope that they take some precautionary steps before plugging in the LAN cables...

    1. Re:No internet connectivity since 2001? by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I think this is usually a game played at security/hacker conferences. Hook up unpatched windows box, time it until it gets an infection. From what I remember reading it generally takes less than a minute. As of 2005, one company's estimate was twelve minutes to infection. The last time I booted windows (box connected directly to the net without a router) I had the firewall in verbose mode and it registered an average of two intrusion attempts per minute.

      Generally speaking, there's a reason that windows machines come with AV and firewalls these days. I'm sure the most conservative estimates of time-to-pwn would be less than the time it would take to download updates.

      --
      Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
  2. Re:The switch has not yet been flipped by ewhac · · Score: 3, Interesting
    My vague understanding -- and please fact-check me on this -- is that the Bureau of Indian Affairs is supposedly in arrears on payments to Native American nations on land leases, which are believed to total in the billions of dollars. Various lawsuits have been filed to try and get the actual accounting data and come up with an accurate number.

    One of the problems was, apparently, that even if you ignored the sloppy accounting, the non-existent security on their networks basically made any figures coming out of the bureau highly suspect. So the judge ordered the entire network off the Internet so that only local malfeasance would further affect the numbers.

    It is further alleged that criminal lobbyist Jack Abramoff had a hand in this mess...

    Schwab

    --
    Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
  3. Re:Tomorrow's news: by antek9 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That's what I was wondering: Imagine they had indeed strictly obeyed that order for six years now, and would just 'finally' re-plug their > six year old PCs and laptops, having missed security and virus signature updates for such a long time: That would be like they say, when the cat's away...

    Watch out for new torrents of sensible data from the same evening on. But of course, that's just my little hysterical hyperbole, they wouldn't have taken that order by the word, now, would they? They cannot, no, can they?

    --
    A World in a Grain of Sand / Heaven in a Wild Flower,
    Infinity in the Palm of your Hand / And Eternity in an Hour.
  4. Re:That was silly.. by TubeSteak · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How is the Bureau of Indian Affairs in need of security in excess of the Defense Department, Congress, the IRS, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission? Well, you could argue that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) should have security equal to that of the State Dept., Treasury Dept., and IRS.

    The BIA is all those things for Native American tribes, each one being Sovereign.

    What the BIA used to have was the online equivalent of a safe, with the combination 12345, holding Native Americans' money.
    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
  5. Re:Tomorrow's news: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Um, you do realize that you can set up an internal WSUS server and manually sync it with an external WSUS server and keep computers on a disconnected network up to date, right?

    Good, because that's what I did when we first got kicked off. I haven't worked there for a few years so I don't know if they kept it up, but it's not hard to do - and certainly not hard to do in preparation of re-connection.

    I guarantee you, the Trust Bureau's probably have networks secure then most military networks. The scrutiny on them from the courts and plantiff's is huge and they know it.

    Funny how the person who started the lawsuit also happens to own a bank and wants the trust fund moved to her bank for administration. Funny how that never comes up - it's always just the "evil government". No, there could never be any other ulterior motives here.

    Puhleeze....