The "quick to say" part about the operational network not being exposed may be - almost certainly contains - PR spin. However, it's plausible, given the way the Bad Guys look for highly salable personal information.The Federal Aviation Administration has joined the growing list of government agencies that have had their supposedly safe systems hacked. The agency this week notified about 45,000 employees that one of its servers was hacked into and employee personal identity information was stolen.
The FAA was quick to say the server that was accessed was not connected to the operation of the air traffic control system or any other FAA operational system. It did say two of the 48 files on the breached computer server contained personal information about more than 45,000 FAA employees and retirees who were on the FAA's rolls as of the first week of February 2006.
Still, it's impossible to look at this and not think about the power grid, or container port computers, or a million other soft, poorly protected targets. Will this be a wake up call for the FAA? Will be it a wake up call for other government agencies?
Technically it wasn't even one of "their" servers; it was operated by a contractor.
ReplyDeleteTheoretically the contractor should have operated under the same standards (and in actuality, most first party contractors operate under STRICTER standards than the agencies they contract for).
Theoretically...