Data on nuclear agency workers hacked

Reuters ^ | Friday, June 9, 2006 | Chris Baltimore

[snowrip]

China, China, China...

Actually, maybe not... 'cause they've already stolen everything.

[Brilliant]

Why can't the software engineers design a system so that if you successfully hack it, you get infected with a virus that destroys your hard drive?

[magslinger]

Terrorism?

[Seruzawa]

Better yet. Don't even have sensitive stuff connected to the internet at all. Problem solved. No LANnie no lookie.

[TheZMan]

Why can't the software engineers design a system so that if you successfully hack it, you get infected with a virus that destroys your hard drive?

Because hackers don't get infected with viruses.

The thing to do here is trace back to every computer that connects to a government agency and figures out the source IP address. It's not overly difficult despite IP spoofing/hopping.

If you know what their IP address is, everything else falls into place.

[familyop]

It's a shame that government agencies are so corrupt and lazy, that they haven't all installed more secure servers with terminals instead of workstations.

http://www.netbsd.org/

http://www.openbsd.org/

[familyop]

"If you know what their IP address is, everything else falls into place."

...unless the cracker uses false information to get a temporary account and dials up from a public phone.

[Diogenesis]

Hey, China did not steal everything.

They PAID for all US pending applications,policy concessions,
and strategic nuclear technology through the DNC.

Berger was the "go-to" man regarding China policy
when Communist Chinese money was being funneled into Democrat Party coffers
in exchange for policy concessions, strategic nuclear technology,
and all pending patent applications at the US Patent Office.
The Hill, "Fundraiser resurfaces from 1996", Sam Dealey

---

Berger stonewalled the Energy Department about Chinese spying in Los Alamos for three years.

[observer5]

Wanna bet that these clowns are running Mafiasoft's Windose software???

I guess they are in good company with the rest of the millions of mindless lemmings that actually run this sh*t every day on the internet.

Its because of these bozos the internet has become infested with viruses and malware and billion of spam messages.

Only a COMPLETE IDIOT runs this crap on his computer. Sorry!

[driftdiver]

"Its because of these bozos the internet has become infested with viruses and malware and billion of spam messages. "

no, its because of the organized crime, immoral companies, and hackers.

"Only a COMPLETE IDIOT runs this crap on his computer. Sorry!"

Guess I am one then. Ya see I'm in business and 99% of the world runs on Windows OS. Sure Unix has its applications. Perhaps if the Unix geeks hadn't been so intent on how smart they were and instead focused on making it Unix easy to use we wouldn't have to worry about Windows today.

So until you can make Unix as easy to use as Bill Gates made Windows AND install it on MILLIONS of servers and workstations stop insulting people.

[familyop]

"Wanna bet that these clowns are running Mafiasoft's Windose software???"

Yes. At least one military office (forgot which) is running OpenBSD, but the rest of them need to be migrating to BSD networks. There are plenty of willing consultants around, although many are too bright to have paid extortion fees or wasted time for the usual degrees from political correctness and social perversion programs. I'll be available in a few months but am taking some time to brush-up on new development stuff first.

Linux is fair, too, although a little buggy and questionable for corporates on licensing. The GPL/LGPL thing hasn't gone to the Supremes, yet, AFAIK.

[familyop]

UNIX does need full documentation and a few more mature developers and users to support it. One group is working on that and a certification system. I'll have to check on the progress of it and contribute a little, after my currently scheduled (self) studies are done.

I'll be writing software (closed source with GUIs) to make some configurations easier this fall.

[proudofthesouth]

Or been given/sold it by two previous Presidents.

[driftdiver]

"UNIX does need full documentation and a few more mature developers and users to support it. One group is working on that and a certification system. I'll have to check on the progress of it and contribute a little, after my currently scheduled (self) studies are done. "

I like Unix and have a couple of different versions running. But its not a OS that you can put in front of the every day business user and let them work. Its very good for high volume server applications. Its also fairly secure.

The enterprise versions of Unix (AIX, Solaris etc) are pretty well documented and feature rich.

If Bill Gates hadn't made windows so easy to use the PC would probably not be as common as it is today.

[KoRn]

"cause they've already stolen everything."

Only the 2nd post and you have already said all that needs to be said.

[conservativefreak]

"If Bill Gates hadn't made windows so easy to use the PC would probably not be as common as it is today."

Hahahahahahahahahahaha, that was a good laugh.
I'm sorry but Apple's OS was light years ahead of Windows in terms of usability, intuitive interface, etc, the reason why Windows became the dominant OS is 1) IBM didn't trust it's own people to make a solid operating system 2) Gates didn't care what hardware Windows ran on (unlike Apple which believes that only Apple hardware can run an Apple OS.) 3) The Catch 22 of applications being written for Windows made it popular, and the reason why it is popular is because of the apps that we're written for, it's a self-feeding monster.

[ASOC]

It is easy to use, it is called OS X.

With clicky windows and everything.

[RFEngineer]

"It's a shame that government agencies are so corrupt and lazy"

I won't claim corruption, though it is virtually impossible to tell from the results whether it is incompetence or corruption. I'm guessing it's more incompetence, but that's just me.

People need to realize that because of gov't incompetence, there IS no privacy. The VA debacle, now this nuclear agency incident is just a peek at how stupid our gov't workers are all across the board. Just brick stupid. Because of this, they will hand over everyones data eventually.

The VA sent me a letter (The IRS gave them my address.....hilarious!) saying that they are going to work to prevent this from happening again. They already, through sheer idiocy, gave away the private data on pretty much every veteran. So, now that that data has been given away by the VA, what difference does it make that they are suddenly claiming to be diligent?

No, gov't cannot be trusted with private data. That much has been proven. They don't safeguard it when they have it (VA issue) or they don't protect it when it is misused (Illegal Immigrants fraudulently using SSN's)

So why not just publish everyones privacy data on the web and quit pretending they are actually competently safeguarding it?

Ok, rant OFF.

[familyop]

Maybe you're right about the problem being more from incompetence. But then men who have worked much with UNIX systems and have clean personal records aren't easily hired.

For one example, I worked a cheap temp contract in a telephone company office (accounts payable), where the system administrator (Arab national of another country) was required to have a master's degree and six years of experience. All of his junior systems administrators (actually permanent systems operators or assistants) were women with no previous experience with UNIX systems. The Sun system that he maintained was often down. I saw similar situations in quite a few other jobs. That's what was being referred to as "corruption."