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Inside NSA's Efforts To Hunt Sysadmins
An anonymous reader writes "The Snowden revelations continue, with The Intercept releasing an NSA document titled 'I hunt sys admins' (PDF on Cryptome). The document details NSA plans to break into systems administrators' computers in order to gain access to the networks they control. The Intercept has a detailed analysis of the leaked document. Quoting: 'The classified posts reveal how the NSA official aspired to create a database that would function as an international hit list of sys admins to potentially target. Yet the document makes clear that the admins are not suspected of any criminal activity – they are targeted only because they control access to networks the agency wants to infiltrate. "Who better to target than the person that already has the ‘keys to the kingdom’?" one of the posts says.'"
Sysadmins are also usually the easiest target to get in.
standard password: 1amgod
Being that they are required to fix problems 24/7 that means they have a "secret" back door on their network so they can get in.
Once they are in they have a lot of access to the companies systems.
We can go, well those guys are just dumb, however I am willing to bet most of you who are sysadmins have some little back door just in case.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.