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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.)"
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.
"puts proof to the lie"
This phrase makes no sense, so I'm going to try using it in a sentence to see if I understand it correctly.
Yesterday someone calling himself a capitalist/god-worshipper/communist killed someone. I think that puts proof to the lie that activist capitalists/god-worshippers/communists are improving the world. They're not. They're murderers, just like all other capitalists/god-worshippers/communists.
Or maybe these servers aren't managed by the same people? HHS server admin and/or security may be outsourced? Or maybe it's the ACA servers that were outsourced.
Just because one <insert something> is not managed properly doesn't mean a similar <insert same thing> that has a different problem suffers from the same mismanagement.
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"
No. The healthcare.gov servers are overloaded due to massive demand for NFL jerseys ;)
Hock up your incorrect knowledge of vocabulary and hawk it to somebody else.
Clearly nobody needs that government sub-agency. Not one complaint in months? Not one employee (let alone tech admin) noticed?
No matter how it happened I think there is a bit of explaining that needs to be done regarding how a government agency's servers were used to sell consumer goods for two months. Nobody noticed? Really? Almost as interesting is either nobody reported it, or nobody took action on the reports. Once against, more explanations are needed.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Strange and implausible as it may seem, "hock" means selling your wares to a pawnshop, and "hawk" means selling your wares to the public. I know, I know, it makes no sense, but there it is, the strange and wonderous beauty of the english language in full flight.
At those prices, can you blame them? It must be a special government only deal!
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
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