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Fannie Mae Worker Indicted For Malicious Script

Posted by Soulskill on from the good-thing-their-engineers-bailed-them-out dept.

dfdashh writes "A former Fannie Mae contractor has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Baltimore, MD for computer intrusion. He attempted to propagate a malicious script throughout the company's 4,000 servers. The DC Examiner has details of the incident: 'Had this malicious script executed, [Fannie Mae] engineers expect it would have caused millions of dollars of damage and reduced if not shutdown operations at [Fannie Mae] for at least one week. ... The virus was set to execute at 9 a.m. Jan. 31, first disabling Fannie Mae's computer monitoring system and then cutting all access to the company's 4,000 servers, Nye wrote. Anyone trying to log in would receive a message saying "Server Graveyard." From there, the virus would wipe out all Fannie Mae data, replacing it with zeros, Nye wrote. Finally, the virus would shut down the servers.'"

23 of 325 comments (clear)

  1. erase my mortgage by tritonman · · Score: 5, Funny

    the only thing that matters to me... will it erase my mortgage??!??!

    1. Re:erase my mortgage by tritonman · · Score: 5, Funny

      even if that were true... erase my mortgage, take my house, I go buy one the same size for half the price now!

    2. Re:erase my mortgage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Foreclosed upon with extreme prejudice.

    3. Re:erase my mortgage by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Funny

      You know, we slashdotters, as natural problem-solvers, should get together and work on a program to do that. It's a pretty pie-in-the-sky idea, though. Hey, that gives me an idea. We should call it "Pie-in-the-Sky."

      No, sounds too hokey. Need something more computer-sounding. How about "Skynet"?

      --
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    4. Re:erase my mortgage by hairyfeet · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah, you think that is funny, but there is no telling how many guys are out there right now trying to cook up the Warhol Worm just so they can say they "shut down the earth". Can you imagine if they figure out a way to get it to wipe out the databases while they are at it? While it would be a good money day for us tech guys can you imagine how long it would take to restore all those backup tapes? And they would have to probably pay us time and a half too......What the hell are you guys waiting for? Write the damned worm already! Don't you want to create jobs and help the economy?

      --
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  2. The First Rule of Fight Club by rhathar · · Score: 5, Funny

    We've gotta wipe the system, man. Give everyone a blank slate!

    --
    http://www.chaotickingdoms.com
  3. but would it have had graphics? by jollyreaper · · Score: 5, Funny

    Either a laughing skull and bones or an animated version of him as a bobblehead that pisses off Samuel L. Jackson with his hacker crap?

    --
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    1. Re:but would it have had graphics? by PeeAitchPee · · Score: 3, Funny

      I was thinking more like an avatar of him as a bespectacled fat dude wagging his finger and going, "Nah ah ah! You didn't say the magic word! Nah ah ah!"

  4. But did it.... by Phoenixhawk · · Score: 5, Funny

    Look like he was flying through a cyberspace version of his city while he was doing it???

  5. My goodness! It might have... by Petersko · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...turned Fannie Mae into a financial failure.

    1. Re:My goodness! It might have... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      "Fixed that for you" and "...you insensitive clod!" are hilarious. They will never die.

      Fixed that for you, you insensitive clod.

  6. It's a deal! by cfulmer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Considering that Fannie Mae has been losing billions every week, the idea of only losing a few million for a week sounds like a great idea.

    1. Re:It's a deal! by Opportunist · · Score: 2, Funny

      "Your honor, I didn't want to cause damage, actually, I wanted to help save a little money by only damaging them for a few millions so they cannot blow billions of taxpayer money this week"

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  7. I am .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I am Jack's complete lack of surprise

  8. Technically by cowscows · · Score: 5, Funny

    Technically, all of the data in a computer is really just a bunch of ones and zeros, so assuming a fairly even mix of those two possibilities, writing over everything with zeros would only change half of their data.

    --

    One time I threw a brick at a duck.

    1. Re:Technically by wren337 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Great defense.
      "In fairness, a lot of those were zeros already."

  9. Woah by bFusion · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is like if someone mixed the movies Office Space and Fight Club together!

    1. Re:Woah by maino82 · · Score: 5, Funny

      The first rule of PC Load Letter is you don't talk about PC Load Letter.

  10. Re:"Rajendrasinh Babubhai Makwan"? by Phoenixhawk · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah, but his friends call him "Raj".

    My gods man, have you never placed a call to tech support, his name is (Tom, Mike, George, or Larry)

  11. Why oh why by geekoid · · Score: 3, Funny

    couldn't somebody at the credit company do this...and not get caught?

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  12. Zero vs. Less Than Zero by srussia · · Score: 5, Funny

    From there, the virus would wipe out all Fannie Mae data, replacing it with zeros

    Wouldn't zero be an improvement over negative whatever?

    --
    Set your phasers on "funky"!
  13. Re:Security is a process by powerlord · · Score: 3, Funny

    Because of a bug in the script which made it error...

    Which is obviously part of their overall security policy, to only hire incompetent programmers.

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  14. overblown by ILuvRamen · · Score: 2, Funny

    If you really think about, their idiotic top level management were still able to do more damage to the company than this virus would have. Now that's amazing!

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