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Congress Gives Federal Agencies Two Weeks To Tally Backdoored Juniper Kit (csoonline.com)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the get-it-fixed dept.

itwbennett writes: In an effort to gauge the impact of the recent Juniper ScreenOS backdoors on government organizations, the House of Representatives is questioning around two dozen U.S. government departments and federal agencies. The U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Oversight and Government Reform sent letters to the agencies on Jan. 21, asking them to identify whether they used devices running the affected ScreenOS versions, to explain how they learned about the issues and whether they took any corrective actions before Juniper released patches and to specify when they applied the company's patches. The questioned organizations have until Feb. 4 to respond and deliver the appropriate documents, a very tight time frame giving that 'the time period covered by this request is from January 1, 2009 to the present.'

4 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Proscecutions? by jdwolfe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Who at Juniper is getting prosecuted for selling backdoor'd routers to the United States Federal Government?

    1. Re:Proscecutions? by sims+2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Prosecuted? Somebody's probably going to get an award for thinking ahead. They had their kit backdoored before the government even made it a requirement! Whats good for the goose is good for the gander and all that.

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      Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
  2. What did you know by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Q: "What did you know and when did you know it?"

    A: We didn't know nothin' then, we don't know nothin' now, and we won't know nothin' next week either."

    "Thank you, this meeting is adjourned."

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    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  3. Re:In other words by gtall · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I know this might come as a shock to you, but the U.S. Government is very large. It does multiple things at one time. One part can have a policy contradicting another part. In some cases, the contradiction is mandated by Congress. Government is not a large company where getting out of line can get you fired. There is no line, there are fiefdoms. And you wouldn't want it any other way.