The "Only Ones" Secure enough ...

Suppose, for the sake or argument, that you were to access some computers being used in a hush-hush investigation of some Hollywood bigwigs. Big names. Names that might be interesting to the Tabloids.

And just for the sake of argument, suppose that you played bigshot to your girlfriend/boyfriend - maybe an actor/actress; you know, just to impress her/him. Suppose (just of the sake of argument, of course) that she/he blabbed to a Hollywood private detective, and so word got back to the lawyers.

What do you think would happen to you? Well, if you lived in Ohio, the court would probably convict you of hacking. After all, they convicted some poor sod of hacking after he uploaded nude pics of himself on his employer's computer.

However, if you happened to be employed by the FBI, you'd get a slap on the wrist:

A former FBI agent was sentenced on Thursday to one year of probation for using the bureau's computers to dig up information on Hollywood executives involved in a prominent wiretapping case.

The former agent, Mark Rossini, was not working on the wiretapping case against Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano and was not authorized to look up the files.

...

Rossini admitted in court documents that he gave the files to a woman with whom he was in a close personal relationship -- she was not named, but he was dating movie actress Linda Fiorentino -- and she passed them on to an attorney for Pellicano.

Computer hacking laws are for the little people, it seems.

In other Fed.Gov security news, it seems that hackers breached Homeland Security's computers that are used to share sensitive information with state and local governments.

The intrusion into the Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) was confirmed to Federal Computer Week by Harry McDavid, the chief information officer for DHS’ Office of Operations Coordination and Planning. McDavid said the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team reported an intrusion into the system in late March. The initial hack was brief and limited, and it was followed by a more extensive hack in early April, McDavid said.

I'd snark that it was probably a Hollywood private dick, but security is a thankless task, and the DHS systems probably weren't much worse than 90% of the Fed.Gov's systems.