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Got Malware? Get a Hammer!
FuzzNugget writes "After the Economic Development Administration (EDA) was alerted by the DHS to a possible malware infection, they took extraordinary measures. Fearing a targeted attack by a nation-state, they shut down their entire IT operations, isolating their network from the outside world, disabling their email services and leaving their regional offices high and dry, unable to access the centrally-stored databases. A security contractor ultimately declared the systems largely clean, finding only six computers infected with untargeted, garden-variety malware and easily repaired by reimaging. But that wasn't enough for the EDA: taking gross incompetence to a whole new level, they proceeded to physically destroy $170,500 worth of equipment (PDF), including uninfected systems, printers, cameras, keyboards and mice. After the destruction was halted — only because they ran out of money to continue smashing up perfectly good hardware — they had racked up a total of $2.3 million in service costs, temporary infrastructure acquisitions and equipment destruction."
You mean I get to release my pent-up anger by destroying physical systems *and* get paid a boatload of money to do it? Where do I sign up?
You know, to be sure?
Will that infect my lawnmower? I'd better destroy it then before it gets dangerous...
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
Best Practices:
1. Take off and nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.
Which part of "Microsoft product" did you not understand?
EDA: did you guys just smash a bunch of computers with a hammer because of viruses?
DHS: Yes, but there havent been any terrorist attacks since we smashed everything with hammers. clearly the operation was a massive success.
EDA: I dont even.....
DHS: yep. Freedom isnt free.
Good people go to bed earlier.
It's was the dreaded "PC LOAD LETTER" virus. Smashing is the only recourse.
I thought that government computers were usually IE6ed?
Ezekiel 23:20
WTF?
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
The actual destruction costs were only: $4,300 (still too much). The rest of that price tag is the total cost of doing the destruction - temporary infrastructure and so on. Not sure why a temporary replacement would cost 10x what was being replaced, though. Still plenty of government waste in the story.
Well except for the mice. You know how mice breed. Destroying those infected mice can take forever, because you find them breeding in closets, junk drawers, sometimes in their original boxes if bought at a TwoFer sale. And the wireless ones can be found a long way away from their nest, under desks, leaving their dongles everywhere.
They were lucky they managed to nip the infestation in the bud. It could have gotten totally out of hand had they owned any traveling laptops with mice. Entire countries might need quarantine. One mouse on a plane, and its game over.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.