What’s the big deal about the connection? They act as if it were some extraordinary feat to hack on dialup as compared to some form of broadband. It’s all bits, only difference was in how fast he could hack it.
As for security, it doesn’t surprise me. One of the worst security setups I’ve seen while working with networks was a state system concerning their election and voter registration. It was practically wide open. Helping to set up a county node, I offered the info to the state network administrator with whom I was working. They weren’t concerned as a private sector employee couldn’t possibly know as much as a government one.
Something uber-prophetic about that statement, I'll leave it for others to fully interpret.