Commerce Dept. Spent $2.7 Million to Fix Nonexistent Computer Virus

CNSNews.com ^ | Elizabeth Harrington

[First_Salute]

The Commerce Department destroyed more than $170,000 worth of working computers, televisions and cameras, all in response to a cyber threat that “did not exist.” ... Commerce Department, feared its IT network was infected with a widespread virus, and ultimately spent more than $2.7 million to fix a problem that was nothing more than “common malware.”

[First_Salute]

Publication date was July 9, 2013.

[Jeff Winston]

This waste of resources alone would’ve funded keeping the White House open to visitors for almost a year.

[Cowboy Bob]

I could have fixed their non-existent problem for $2.5 million!

[impimp]

They destroyed mice and TVs in order to eradicate the evil virus. Perhaps they should have fumigated the entire office as well, or maybe bring in some mystics to cast their spells on the virus.

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

impimp ~:" They destroyed mice and TVs in order to eradicate the evil virus. Perhaps they should have fumigated the entire office as well, or maybe bring in some mystics to cast their spells on the virus. "

Is a voodoo shaman covered by ObamaCure ?
Maybe that 2.5 Billion is actually going into the DNC ??
Who was it that said : " FOLLOW THE MONEY !!?

[Hardraade]

They wopuldn’t happen to be customers of Norman ASA, now?

Norman is fully capable of making them a virus to order.

[USNBandit]

Those are always the toughest ones to fix....

[mrsmith]

Using the search box at the EDA site got: “no results found for ‘”chief information officer”’.”

LMBO

Apparently he/she is at least capable of keeping themselves out of their own search results.

[Maurice Tift]

  “EDA’s management agreed with this risk assessment and EDA initially destroyed more than $170,000 worth of its IT components, including desktops, printers, TVs, cameras, computer mice, and keyboards,” they said.

   Not only did the agency have $170,500 worth of working equipment destroyed, they paid $4,300 to have it done.

   The ordeal ended up costing $2,747,000—which is over half of EDA’s budget for the year—including more than $1 million for “temporary infrastructure.”

   In fact, the EDA wanted to destroy all of its computers and IT equipment, valued at over $3 million, but ran out of funds to do so.
----------------------

   They destroyed computer mice and printers? cameras? Who needs viruses when we've got idiots?

[tanknetter]

They destroyed computer mice and printers? cameras? Who needs viruses when we've got idiots?

Isn't a piece of plug and play hardware the way STUXNET got into the Iranian nuke program computers?

But, having said that, who the heck would ever think that the "Economic Development Administration" would be targeted for a nation-state hacking attack on that sort of level?

(answer: apparently the Economic Development Administration's CIO)

[tanknetter]

Using the search box at the EDA site got: “no results found for ‘”chief information officer”’.”

LMBO

Apparently he/she is at least capable of keeping themselves out of their own search results.

Forbes has a better article, one that names the CIO.

There's another article linked to at the bottom from Network World (Kill it with Fire). Apparently NSA and DHS were egging this guy on. Makes me wonder if they were serious, or just bored that day and seeing how much it would take to make him pop.

[Maurice Tift]

  I've seen removable storage malware. Stuxnet can spread via removable storage, but it's also very easy to erase removable storage drives.