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Council Sells Security Hole On Ebay

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the only-as-good-as-your-weakest-link dept.

Barence writes "A security expert was stunned to discover a VPN device he'd bought on Ebay automatically connected to a local council's confidential servers. Bought for just 99p for use at work, when plugged in it automatically connected with the login details which had been carelessly left on the device. 'The whole selling point of the device was that it was extremely easy to configure. It's pretty horrific really,' says the intrusion-detection professional. The council says it is 'deeply concerned' by the news, but is confident that 'multiple layers of security have prevented access to systems and data.'"

6 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Layers of Security by FredFredrickson · · Score: 5, Funny

    By layers of security, I'm sure he meant something along the lines of "Even if you can connect to our network printers on the windows server- you can't use them! Heck, we still can't figure out how to use them. Actually if you figure out how to get them to work, can you get the print jobs started? There's probably a couple hundred print jobs waiting.

    Oh and you probably can't access any files on our network, because in this HIGH security office, we don't even have network shares or anything of the like. Nopers, we email documents to eachother. Good luck catching us, dude. LAYERS. LAYERS AND LAYERS of security."

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    Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
  2. Re:I don't know... by russotto · · Score: 4, Funny

    Would a security expert really by "stunned" by this? Sounds like business as usual to me.

    Never seen Casablanca, have you?

    Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
    [a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
    Croupier: Your winnings, sir.

  3. Re:Layers of Security by Fx.Dr · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...but none of the five bears...

    I dunno, five bears can be pretty scary. I'd be sure to stay away from that network.

  4. Missed opportunity by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 3, Funny

    Shame they didn't think to advertise the stored login on the item's eBay description. They could probably have gotten more than 99p for it.

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    Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
  5. Re:Just like beer by crunch_ca · · Score: 3, Funny

    [Nomenumbra] 0 bottles of beer on the wall, 0 bottles of beer, you take 1 down, pass it around, 4294967295 bottles of beer on the wall.

    Yay, I can hardly wait for the 64-bit port of this application!

  6. Re:Layers of Security by TobyWong · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ahh yes, the infamous PC LOAD LETTER firewall! Impervious to all but the most clever hackers.

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    - Toby