Feds allege plot to destroy Fannie Mae data

Breitbart ^ | 1/30/09 | staff

[xtinct]

URBANA, Md. (AP) - The Justice Department says it foiled a plot by a fired Fannie Mae contract worker in Maryland to destroy all the data on the mortgage giant's 4,000 computer servers nationwide. The U.S. Attorney's Office says 35-year-old Rajendrasinh Makwana, of Glen Allen, Va., is scheduled for arraignment Friday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on one count of computer intrusion.

U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein says Makwana was fired Oct. 24.

Rosenstein says that on that day, Makwana programmed a computer with a malicious code that was set to spread throughout the Fannie Mae network and destroy all data this Saturday.

[penelopesire]

But the report is saying he was fired for ‘changing a few settings’..then planted the data bomb on Oct 24th..after he was fired.

[tiredoflaundry]

This guy might have been set up by the folks at Fannie Mae trying to hide the evidence folks!This happened in October when all the news was coming out about Fannie Mae!

Oh yeah!

[gieriscm]

With all due respect, if Fannie Mae's data isn't backed up regularly (and I'm talking hourly) and physically stored offsite then their network admins need to be smacked. Data integrity and security ain't exactly rocket science.

Of course, they probably can't afford a CISSP on staff...

[r9etb]

$500 sez this jackass is a DIMocrat operative. Wait & see. A week or two from now.

If I were a betting man, I'd take that bet. The guy sounds like nothing more than a garden-variety paranoid fruitloop.

[r9etb]

But the report is saying he was fired for ‘changing a few settings’..then planted the data bomb on Oct 24th..after he was fired.

I'd chalk that up to reporter ignorance. There'd be no way for him to get into the system after being fired.

My money's on a "deadman timer" program that triggered after he failed to log on to the system for a while. Whatever else he did with the "changed settings," they would been utilized by his bomb as well.

[Girlene]

He planted it on October 24th (after he was fired). It wasn’t discovered until October 29. But it wasn’t set to go off until January 31, 2009. If this was a disgruntled employee, why wait for it to go off so long after he was fired?

[TChris]

...backed up regularly (and I'm talking hourly)...

What do you think, would co-located redundant RAID 5+1 NAS be sufficient if hourly physical backup is IMPOSSIBLE?

[penelopesire]

“There’d be no way for him to get into the system after being fired.”

Another question then...What government employee can be fired for one ‘offense’ and made to leave the same day anymore? I thought the libs had protections written into law about such things?

LOL..It doesn’t make sense. They fired him for ‘what-ever’..then allowed him back on his computer to program a revenge data bomb? They are trying to say he was a ‘disgruntled’ worker..yet he was fired before he planted the data bomb.

[penelopesire]

Good question. Something doesn’t add up. Plus, they didn’t even arrest him until Jan.7, 2009.

Why wait so long?

[elpadre]

any possibility of conspiracy charges, and if so, who else??

[elpadre]

“Just a disgruntled employee acting alone”

are you sure?? any documents made public that nail it as a solo act??

[Doe Eyes]

Says here he was an immigrant with an H-1B Visa.

Indian H-1B Plants Logic Bomb in Fannie Mae Servers

[penelopesire]

Another source with more info from the affidavit:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Fired-Engineer-at-Fannie-Mae-Accused-of-Planting-Malware-Time-Bomb/

“Federal officials said Makwana was terminated because on or about Oct. 10 or Oct. 11 he created a computer script that changed the setting on the Unix servers without getting the nod of his supervisor. That script was not malicious.

“Despite Makwana’s termination, [his] computer access was not immediately terminated,” FBI agent Jessica A. Nye stated in the affidavit.

Nye goes on to explain that access to Fannie Mae’s computers for contractors’ employees was controlled by the company’s procurement department, which did not terminate Makwana’s computer access until late in the evening Oct. 24”

I’d like to know who his ‘supervisor’ was?

[Girlene]

My money's on a "deadman timer" program that triggered after he failed to log on to the system for a while. Whatever else he did with the "changed settings," they would been utilized by his bomb as well.

According the Fannie Mae Contractor Indicted For Logic Bomb he wrote it that afternoon from his laptop which was not confiscated.

------"The discovery occurred on Oct. 29. Makwana had been terminated as a Fannie Mae contractor on Oct. 24, around 1 or 1:30 p.m., the affidavit says, but his network access was not terminated until late that evening."------------

--------"Makwana was not required to turn in his badge or Fannie Mae-supplied laptop until the end of the day on Oct. 24. According to Nye's affidavit, it was during that afternoon that Makwana is alleged to have planted the malicious script." ---------

[Ender Wiggin]

sarcasm, sarcasm, sarcasm

[penelopesire]

see #53.

This account says he was fired on or around Oct. 10-11!! You would think that they would have taken his commputer away before Oct. 24!!

(Unless, of course, he was being set up to be a patsy)

[Girlene]

No, he didn’t get fired until Oct. 24 because of the unauthorized change of settings on October 10 or 11. Not sure what took them so long to fire him.

[r9etb]

Thanks for the update.

Sounds to me like Fannie Mae was pretty stupid....

[Hoffer Rand]

Only slightly off topic. Stuff like this totally makes you want to sign on for congress’ new plan to make a national database for everyone’s medical records, doesn’t it?

[expatpat]

How did they catch him, just in time?