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Strategies & Market Trends : Stock Attack II - A Complete Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Shread who wrote (39027)	8/16/2002 1:48:03 PM
From: isopatch	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 52237

Paul. Get a load of this! Typical result when 95% of a government is unelected and unaccountable because they can't be fired! Unless the US Civil Service law is amended? America will be an easy mark for future terror attacks. IMHO? Our society is dangerously close to being crushed by the growing epidemic internal government incompetence, malfeasance and just plain corruption. And because of the highly centralized and controled US media, the vast majority of the American people will be the last to know what's happened. Isopatch biz.yahoo.com <Friday August 16, 1:16 pm Eastern Time Reuters Market News Military Computers Easily Cracked, Experts Say By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of U.S. military and government computers containing sensitive information are easily accessible over the Internet, a computer security firm that cracked the networks said on Friday. ADVERTISEMENT Military encryption techniques, correspondence between generals, recruits' Social Security and credit-card numbers and other sensitive information is often stored on Internet-connected computers that use easily guessed passwords or in some cases no passwords at all, said an official at San Diego security firm ForensicTec Solutions Inc. "We were kind of shocked at the security measures, or lack thereof," said ForensicTec President Brett O'Keefe. ForensicTec consultants came across the network for the U.S. Army's Fort Hood base in Texas while working with another client earlier this summer, O'Keefe said. From there, they were able to access internal networks at other military bases, as well as civilian agencies like the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Department of Energy and the Department of Transportation, he said. Computers were easily cracked by guessing common passwords like the user's name, or even by typing in "password," O'Keefe said. Although they were not able to access any classified information, the security consultants were able to find e-mail messages between generals and other high-ranking officers and recruits' Social Security and credit-card numbers, he said. They also found records describing radio-encryption techniques, laser-targeting systems and information about couriers carrying secret documents, he said. More sensitive information might be available, as the consultants only checked a few of the tens of thousands of computers that could be accessed, he said. Defense Department spokesmen were not immediately available for comment. Computer trespass is a felony crime in the United States, and computer hackers could face beefed-up penalties including life in prison under a bill that passed the House of Representatives earlier this year. But O'Keefe said ForensicTec consultants felt they needed to highlight the lax security so that it could be improved. "Yes, it was a risk for us to come forward, but if we didn't, who's to say the next person to come across these networks would do the right thing?" he said.>