Slashdot Mirror
Australian Police Database Lacked Root Password
Concerned Citizen writes "The Australian Federal Police database has been hacked, although 'hacked' might be too strong a word for what happens when someone gains access to a MySQL database with no root password. Can you be charged with breaking and entering a house that has the door left wide open? Maybe digital trespassing is a better term for this situation. 'These dipshits are using an automatic digital forensics and incident response tool,' the hacker wrote. 'All of this [hacking] had been done within 30-40 minutes. Could of [sic] been faster if I didn't stop to laugh so much.'"
It's a media beat-up over nothing. The media are turning this into a "win" for the "hackers", whereas in reality nothing happened. It was a honeypot computer that was isolated according to standard operating procedures. It wasn't connected to the rest of the police network.
By "hackers", we mean criminals: these guys steal credit cards, people's identities, bank login information, and ultimately make life living hell for the people they rip off.
And for your information, these police and civilian techs work hard and are highly competent. They're not clueless idiots, although in some instances it would be advantageous for them if people did view them as clueless idiots.
I look forward to them busting more doors down and nailing 20 year-old punks sitting in their mothers' basements extorting and terrorising innocent people around the world.
If I go to Yale, can I be a douche bag too?