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Obama Helicopter Security Breached By File Sharing
Hugh Pickens writes "A company that monitors peer-to-peer file-sharing networks has discovered a potentially serious security breach involving President Barack Obama's helicopter. 'We found a file containing entire blueprints and avionics package for Marine One, which is the president's helicopter,' says Bob Boback, CEO of Tiversa, a security company that specializes in peer-to-peer technology. Tiversa was able to track the file, discovered at an IP address in Tehran, Iran, back to its original source. 'What appears to be a defense contractor in Bethesda, Md., had a file-sharing program on one of their systems that also contained highly sensitive blueprints for Marine One,' says Boback, adding that someone from the company most likely downloaded a file-sharing program, typically used to exchange music, without realizing the potential problems. 'I'm sure that person is embarrassed and may even lose their job, but we know where it came from and we know where it went.' Iran is not the only country that appears to be accessing this type of information through file-sharing programs. 'We've noticed it out of Pakistan, Yemen, Qatar and China. They are actively searching for information that is disclosed in this fashion because it is a great source of intelligence.'"
A lot of these P2P apps share your entire home or your entire computer by default when you first install them, it's up to you to go in and shut that stuff off, or at least define a specific folder to share from rather than the default.
Tagging this with "windows" isn't fair - it can affect any other system equally, this isn't a software problem, it's a user or developer issue. For example, I've worked on numerous macs with Limewire installed on them that are sharing all the user's music automatically by default.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Should be *banned* for security areas. If you need 'outside' for a valid reason you provide a dedicated machine for that purpose.
Its pretty simple. That company should be fired, not just the fool that caused the leak.
And i don't care what OS it runs, anything less then the above is plain reckless.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Uh, data like this shouldn't even be on a computer with a physical link to the internet at all. Classified data should stay on classified networks. Period.
I know a guy at a defense contractor. They isolate their networks containing classified data. If they need to remove a file from the room they reimage a desktop with a known safe image, copy the file onto that PC from a CD burned from a classified PC. They then scrub the files with software that does stuff like wipe unallocated space, check for word versions, PDF comments, etc. Then that desktop is used to burn a new CD with just the intended files. Then they securely wipe the desktop. That one CD that was created in this fashion is then allowed to leave the room. Note that this is the gist of how it works - some details may be less than accurate (obviously I'm not privy to the exact procedures, but this is the general level of rigor involved).
Even if somebody installed Kazaa or its like on one of the computers in that room it wouldn't be able to leak data - there are no network connections that are attached to the internet. If somebody needs to check email or browse the web they leave the room (carrying nothing with them) and go to another desk in a regular office area, which has a fairly secure network but something more akin to what you'd find in any decently secured corporate network. Of course, installing kazaa in the first place would be difficult since you're not supposed to carry anything into or out of the classified areas - I don't know if they get searched at the door but you would certainly be fired and potentially prosecuted if you were caught doing it intentionally.
Important datacenters like those found in stock exchanges / etc are similar. The datacenter is secured, network access is very carefully controlled, and to do anything important you need to have physical access to a room with cameras pointed everywhere and every task involves two people at the keyboard at all times.
There is no excuse for these kinds of breaches. Strong security isn't actually hard. It is certainly expensive, and it is certainly inconvenient. However, it really isn't hard - you just need to be methodical.
.. but most importantly:
1. the idiots that believed the story. :rolleyes:
They should be asking what a contractor is doing putting classified information on his "walking around" laptop.
From the article:
"Clark told WPXI that he doesn't know how sensitive this information is, but he said other military information has been found on the Internet in the past and should be monitored more closely."
Nothing in the article said the information was classified, so it looks to me like it's kind of a "mountain out of a molehill" kind of thing - there's plenty of information about military hardware out there that looks scary to someone that doesn't know anything about the subject matter, but is strategically/tactically useless just the same. Similar information regarding the VC-25 fleet has been out there for some time, and I don't trust a reporter or employee of a peer-to-peer company to be able to evaluate whether something contains full documentation of "entire blueprints and avionics package for Marine One".
I worked for several years for a Navy contractor in their submarine combat systems department. Anything, *anything* that was classified was A.) kept in an area with physical access controls (often including unfriendly guys with guns), B.) if available electronically, was on a separate network physically inaccessible from outside that controlled area, and C.) if anything had to go outside that controlled area (software updates for the boats, for instance), there was a two-man protocol to be followed, with one of our guys and one of the Navy guys in custody 24x7 of whatever media had classified data on it. Even assuming the article is correct and there was truly useful information made available, the problem isn't that file-sharing is bad, or that Windows is insecure - the problem is that both the contractor and the agency they serve had lapses in their security protocol that would let such information anywhere near a non-secured network, and the appropriate security audits weren't taking place.
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
What sort of security depends on the secrecy of a helicopter's blueprints? Honestly.
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