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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.'"

14 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 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"?

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  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?

    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
  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.

  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.

  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. 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"!