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Former TSA Analyst Charged With Computer Tampering
angry tapir writes "A Transportation Security Administration analyst has been indicted with tampering with databases used by the TSA to identify possible terrorists who may be trying to fly in the US. If convicted, he faces 10 years in prison."
seven days after he'd being given two weeks notice that he was being dismissed
So, you have this super-secure database system that is really important so the country doesn't get overrun by terrorists and then you do this!
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If I did the same thing I would be accused of violating DMCA, across federal borders, with intent to destabilize the National Security. I would be lucky to get away with a life sentence without parole. This guy is getting as much as somebody stealing a really big TV.
War? What war? Did Congress declare war while I wasn't paying attention?
It makes a claim without any relevant details. For example, if this former employee were doing a normal security assessment to file a report on what they need to lock down after he's gone, one which his new boss didn't ask for or understand as appropriate security practice, he could face exactly these kind of charges. Or if he were plugging a hole used by the NSA for warrant-free tapping and injection of data, knowing that the hole was a constitutional violation mandated by his previous boss, and whose discovery and protest over its existence was the reason he was fired, I'd applaud his desire though not his means to plug such a hole.
Let's be quite clear: the TSA has inherited bad staff, bad bureaucracy, and bad guidance from the White House itself down to all the agencies it was created to oversee and merge and which it has profoundly failed to coordinate. The result is a security and policy nightmare, the kind of political football that incompetent middle managers flock to because it's so hard to close, and it's so hard to actually measure its work product. I'm not surprised that an employee being terminated was mishandled, or misbehaved by the agency's standards. But the agency engages in so much blatantly civil rights abuse that it's unreasonable to believe its claims of cyber attack without far more detail about what was attacked, and why.
That would be consistent with trying to support their case.
I was once charged with careless driving, that a couple corrupt cops wanted to make into a serious case, and get another notch in their belts. The charges were just shy of attempted murder, where I could have run someone over, except for the fact that I was driving down an empty back road in rural nowhere, and there wasn't a person to be seen along the route. The lied the whole way, including claiming that my car flew. Well, more like a "Dukes of Hazzard" jump, except my car couldn't get out it's own way. They had "experts" testify that my car had been modified for racing, and I switched it back to claim innocence. That was tough for a 16 year old with no money. A couple years later they were officially charged and convicted of a whole slew of charges including falsifying evidence and other various nasty charges. In my case, the DA stood in front of a judge, and said that I was a danger to the safety of the citizens of the state and I should be held until the conclusion of the hearings. As the courts run, that would have put me in county jail for about a year. In the end, it was dropped to careless driving, and I was let off with probation and community service.
So a single pesky word passed by the grand jury was done for the drama, and to influence their case. It doesn't necessarily reflect the facts. Then again, it may be a hint of what they have.
All they said is that his job was to work on the servers and database. They said "knowingly transmitted code". Was it a shell script to maintain something? Was it a virus on his PC that accidentally got on there (pesky Windows networks and poor security)? Was it something nefarious? It'll come out in the real case, but this guy will be spending an awful lot of time in jail and court before it's proven either way.
I hope for the sake of justice that this isn't another innocent man run through the system just to prove that he's innocent.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
> no no no no. it's his own fault for being a stupid douche and tampering with shit he knew damn well he shouldn't be tampering with.
More than one person can be at fault here. Nobody is arguing that it's not this guy's fault. Maybe you think it's a good idea to stand on the train tracks all day and whine about how any decent conductor should be paying enough attention to stop, but most people would say that you're asking for trouble.
Trying to get off the hook for not stopping foreseeable problems is just another way of dodging personal responsibility while claiming not to. Playing victim doesn't help, either.
Seriously guys? We read an unsubstantiated claim of "computer tampering" and automatically assume that he's guilty of treason or something equally malicious? The indictment was incredibly vague and we have little to go on.
'Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.' - Mao Tse-tung
OMG! I have just the right xkc... Oh. I see what you did there.
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