Posted on 10/05/2013 5:51:20 AM PDT by lafarge
A portion of the website of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) was apparently hacked as long as two months ago. SAMHSA is an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS also runs the new Obamacare insurance marketplace, Healthcare.gov.
Dozens of pages hawking retail merchandise have been uploaded to the SAMHSA site, ranging from NFL jerseys to Ugg shoes to Armani fragrances.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
Two months and it’s still there? Probably guvemps running a side business.
Getting dead link?
Gotta do something when you’re furloughed!
Who designs and maitains cyber security for these government sites? Is Wiley Coyote ordering security packages from Acme? As usual the Road Runner is kicking his butt.
It should TERRIFY every American how abysmal is our nation’s cyber security.
McAfee states only yesterday that something like this would happen. Just a matter of time...
Apparently the hackers also hacked this article. :)
Yes and it has been that way for years. The money that should be spent on fixing it is spent on bonuses for under performing federal employees.
Looks like they got it fixed. The vendors will be back for sure.
I think the USA’s people who need everything to be glitzy and on the network accessible immediately 24x7 can share some blame for the abysmal security overall. There’s no problem in existence anymore that somebody isn’t advocating a web site for. Old, dead, unneeded and unused servers are left behind once the money for any trite project is used up.
If I understand you correctly, it is the user not the provider’s fault. I don’t, but most people do assume a site is secure to some extent. When it comes to federal sites, the money is there to obtain and maintain a high level of security. But the money is spent on parties in Vegas and other necessities.
In case you didn’t see this story: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3075180/posts
Be sure to look at the security disclaimer...then you will be even more terrified!!!
“If I understand you correctly, it is the user not the provider’s fault. I don’t, but most people do assume a site is secure to some extent. When it comes to federal sites, the money is there to obtain and maintain a high level of security. But the money is spent on parties in Vegas and other necessities.”
Americans - dumber & dumber by the year - in general demand these sites. Not the particular user, the general user population. So every project, 1000’s of them independently, will make their web site right at the start of any project. It’s easier than doing the actual work. But really, does everything under the sun need to be worldwide accessible over the network round the clock? Snazzy colors & fonts. Why do people think so?
The money is not there. Govt. in particular will do the easy 90% of a task, and leave the final 10% - needing 90% of the effort - undone. Security on the web and Internet is non-existent without constant updates of every piece to fix new bugs, and to entirely rework the parts that cannot be fixed to some new method.
Here we have an example site. When & why was it created? Two months and nobody cares it is hacked until it hits the media? I’d say this is a worthless, unused site. Yet, it was created by some HHS (social welfare) group who believes in web sites, reflecting the general USA population’s same belief. You can expect it was discussed in meetings and not some lone functionary’s decision.
Your “spent on parties in Vegas” is simplistic and hardly true. USA people are getting exactly the govt. they deserve, the decades of idiocy implemented while they watched their TVs are starting to have effects.
Nothing simplistic about it and it is absolutely true. Most federal employees are serious about doing a good job. But most department heads are life long liberals who would give anything to piss away tax dollars so that their budget gets increased evey year. I don’t know what you base your simplistic opinion on. But you sound like some of the federal goverment department heads I have encountered the past few years.
If you can cite where govt. employees are spending their budgets on parties in Vegas at some rate exceeding that of private employers let me know. Fact is people who work in many fields attend conferences, and conferences are held in attractive cities like Vegas, not Cleveland or St Louis.
Most Fed employees start intending to do a good job. But the disproportionately hired Affirmative Actions ones are not so capable and get in the way of others. Most the others realize they hardly have to produce and become unmotivated. The non-minority ones realize they cannot be promoted due to racial bias. Before long, few are motivated to continue producing. Are 1 or a 1000 crap web sites any surprise?
Whether govt or private, managers piss away budgets so they can get more next year all over. This is a reflection of a greedy, corrupt, culture and system. Don’t attribute malice where stupidity applies.
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