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HHS-Run Website Hacked To Hawk Boots, Perfumes, and NFL Jerseys
cold fjord writes with this excerpt from the Weekly Standard: "A portion of the website of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) was apparently hacked as long as two months ago. SAMHSA is an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS also runs the new Obamacare insurance marketplace, Healthcare.gov. Dozens of pages hawking retail merchandise have been uploaded to the SAMHSA site, ranging from NFL jerseys to Ugg shoes to Armani fragrances. ... Shortly after this story was posted, the site nace.samhsa.gov returned an error message saying that the site could not be found. Later, the following message appeared on the site (misspelling included): 'This site is undgoing maintenance. We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused you.'" (Screenshots in the story; Cached example from Google.)"
I think that puts proof to the lie that the healthcare.gov servers are overloaded due to "massive demand for Obamacare:" they're not. They're just horribly mismanaged, just like everything else the federal government does, so that the meager demand that does exist easily swamps them.
As someones life my well be in the balance.
A world where political points are more valued than life is a world that is doomed.
Just a matter of time until an error is made that can not be recovered from.
Well, this was inevitable.
Those crazy webmaster dudes at SAMHSA are always jonesing for a fix - it seems that someone couldn't wait for payday.
*sigh* I guess I want my /. of 2005 back. Now get the hell off my lawn.
New mod option wanted: -1 DrunkenRambling
Anyone who isn't addicted to American consumerism is mentally ill. This perfectly normal retail portion of the website helps Americans recovering from substance abuse by encouraging them to spend all their money on shiny crap instead.
A link to the right-wing near-tabloid "The Weekly Standard", calls the PPACA "Obamacare", assumption that HHS doesn't have multiple teams / varying levels of security and monitoring based on site importance, implication that a single hacked site somehow implies the entire department of Health and Human Services is incompetent.
The fact that timothy green-lights this shit is mind-boggling.
I thought all the websites got shut down in the the government shutdown...
Also, i hope the dude which is cleaning up the mess doesn't get paid overtime. Those taxes are for the government to waste, not you.
you should have said Hock, not hawk
govt efficiency at its finest!
I think the feds should take advantage of those low prices. At least then, when they default, we can all end up with free T-shirts and a pair of shoes.
Sounds very familiar, this exact same link-spam has been hitting ./ for a couple of years now. Usually several postings from one user, somewhat individualized posts. I just moderate all posts by that user -1 troll and they disappear from sight/site. Whack-a-mole for sure, but at least the spamming becomes less visible/effective.
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
Looks like they just didn't properly verify UGC.
really just looks like they didn't verify UGC and let people upload junk in one section that should have been moderated.
Clearly nobody needs that government sub-agency. Not one complaint in months? Not one employee (let alone tech admin) noticed?
"...To be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society..." - Jiddu Khrishnamurti
* That about sums it up...
APK
P.S.=> A sick society that makes wars to make the 1% wealthy even wealthier, along with wiping out the potential competitor to them in a middle-class (who in courts of "law" CAN afford to get a chance in it) - by offshoring good paying jobs, for starters, so they profit AND break that middle class @ the same time.
I.E.-> Erode that middle class' wealth? Who can stand against you as the "wealthy 1%'er"? Answer = NOBODY! Then they can make their WARS (most profitable enterprise there is mind you for the wealthy investment class), for "FREEDOM" (whose freedom & what kind? FINANCIAL FREEDOM for those 1%'ers is who & what is really is!).
Additionally (as far as standing up to "the man"): Not that you ever really could, since they just DELAY you until you couldn't afford to pay YOUR attorney anyhow, just like bluffing in poker when you've got more chips pretty much.. i.e. -> Just "lean on 'em", until they break! Except this latter route COSTS MORE, & they figured out a better way, above... take away folks' money! Keep them living "hand-to-mouth", paycheck to SHITTY paycheck, scared to open their mouths (not that 'freedom of speech' & the constitution even MATTERS anymore). They also spend it on spy networks (NSA) to find anyone that DOES speak their mind, to stomp on them too since that is REALLY what that is truly, all about (not finding 'terrorists' since the ROI on THAT is shitty for what was spent, hugely so in fact). Top that off with them being CAUGHT & ADMITTING they abused it no less.... wtf!
Example? The CEO of QWEST: He wouldn't comply? They trump up charges of "insider trading" on him, & put him away... that, is WHY this spy network was set up. The honest politicians (what little few there are)?? Kept in check, I am CERTAIN of it, by blackmail the SAME way.
Now, by way of comparison? They outright LIE to congress & get away with it... you or I do the same?? Well, you know!
It makes ME think "WTF" - don't know about the rest of you (then again, I do - anyone I've spoken of this about thinks the same, from the local garbageman, to the postman up to say, educators & engineers etc.)!
That's what I see going on - & so do others!
So, instead of taking care of the general public constituency, THAT's is what "good government" does, nothing more (puppets of the lobbyists & wealthy - TRULY "the best politicians money can REALLY buy").
All done, by simply changing rules in "secret courts" (WTF?) & making "new laws" that even blow off the constitution, done via puppet politicians ("best money can REALLY buy") that the wealthy really own, via hedging their bets backing EITHER candidate, so they win, either way (& we ALL lose)!
Man - YOU brought up junkies? There's WORSE ones that harm far more others, in their sickness of the soul/virus of the spirit as I call it, in GREED! They lack components of morality MOST folks have, & to satisfy their need for a "power & control" fix, they pull this shit!
Get over 1 thing I see here, quite a lot: THERE IS NO "DEMOCRATS & REPUBLICANS" folks - there is only puppets owned by the same "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" wealthy.
Well - then, it surprises me that more people haven't gotten out the heroin needle & just plain given up (that, or violent revolution, the worse result overall BY FAR)... However, the latter in parenthesis won't happen!
Not until they keep up their "governmental shutdown" b.s., cutting welfare though - that's when actual revolutions in history take place (when folks are freezing or starving, along with their kids), & WHY the welfare system was REALLY put in place (to maintain "government continuity"). All the while, NO MATTER WHAT, those that're part of the "good ole' boys clique" keep profiting at YOUR taxpayer expense, keeping THEIR job, while the rest of us lose ours.
With the impending and now current government shutdown, HHS clearly just decided to dedicate a portion of their site to selling merchandise in an attempt to partially self-fund their operations. I say well done, HHS.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
And the website that those jerseys were taken from and linked to is still quite active, with contact info.
http://www.2013jerseymall.com/contact_us.html
-jim