Gannett has disclosed that hackers breached Army Times and nearly a dozen other GCI sites devoted to government news, accessing names, e-mail addresses, passwords and other personal information of an untold number of users.
The Los Angeles Times has the story this morning; I'm working from my iPhone now, so can't post much.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
25 comments:
Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Bet it is someone in China looking for defense secrets but puzzled when he's confronted by a dysfunctional structure of something that looks like a top-down military organization, but isn't. Expect them to come back because they are intrigued and believe it might be a backdoor into the National Security Agency.
ReplyDeleteNote: Writing HTML with an iPhone turns out to be doable, but it's very labor-intensive.
ReplyDeleteWe might be able to stir up something writing about expensive new military-related national highway projects, Egyptians who live by the sea, and people living in a Florida fort who have 14 sudden departures but seem to have their original population of 35 retained. Strange this going on here.
ReplyDeleteMaybe more mayhem from network of hackers that call themselves Lulz Security. Gannett's workforce is so thin that it's an easy and vulnerable target:
ReplyDeletehttp://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/28/hacker-group-releases-government-files/
Time for Susan Profit Motif to return to her roots and save day. She's doing nothing to improve the quality of Usa Today.
ReplyDeleteSusan is a vice president now, one of many on their way out with Chief Morale Officer Hunke.
ReplyDelete"It's All Within Reach."
ReplyDeleteNow, hacker tested, hacker approved.
Looks like the company did the right thing in disclosing.
ReplyDeleteThe did do the right thing. But only after somebody else told them it even happened. Like everything else in this company- it was news to them!
ReplyDeleteWell, what to you expect from Gannett IT? I bet someone had to place a trouble ticket!
ReplyDeleteThe National Security Agency, which is also known by its acronym NSA as "no such agency," has a very aggressive program alerting American businesses when their computer networks are penetrated to stop foreign countries from stealing U.S. intellectual secrets. This is why if you have Windows your computer keeps updating your software. How this operates, I really don't know, but I am happy to see a government program operating.
ReplyDeleteThat would be GMTI wouldn't it? I don't think Gannett IT hosts those sites.
ReplyDelete@7:01 - why do you think somebody else told them? The information on the page doesn't say anything about someone else telling them they were hacked. It says that they used an outside firm to help investigate the issue.
ReplyDelete9:33am, you are correct.
ReplyDelete@10:42am... Seriously?
ReplyDelete@1:29 - yes.
ReplyDelete1:39 Then re-read 8:08 if you want to know who is involved in these sorts of things.
ReplyDeleteThe way hacking works is one computer in a network of computers can be used as a backdoor way of gaining an access to private information. This one computer can be faulty because it isn't updated, or someone got sloppy assigning it a password as administrator that can be guessed easily as ABC1234. Everyone is supposed to be aware of routine computer security these days, but obviously hackers are finding ways into major systems and it is usually some remote computer that is used as a backdoor. It appears that some security agencies can track hacking efforts (see how they are wrapping up the Lutz network) and when they see this happen, they alert business, which signals back it got the message and corrected the problem by issuing a press release. These press releases seldom mention how the break-in was discovered, because those doing the discovery don't want it known.
ReplyDelete@2:30 - so you are saying that the NSA told them that they had been hacked?
ReplyDelete4:46 The NSA doesn't tell us what they are doing. The only time I have seen a story involving this agency was after Congress cut its budget, and they invited reporters for a tour. Then came 9/11 and you can't get near it today, and you are hard-pressed to get even a comment. If Chet Czarniak wants to make his spurs, he should sic his investigative team on ripping the lid off this agency.
ReplyDeleteAsk Jim about the NSA. They have a big presence in San Francisco because that is the entry point for an underwater telephone cable to and from Asia.
ReplyDelete2:28 is probably one of those people who goes from site to site posting about how "Flash is bad" or some other tech mantra du jour.
ReplyDeleteWorthless post, 2:28.
2:28 here. No I can't do it. Never tried, probably because I know the consequences of being caught. But I can easily describe how they do it because I covered some of the arrests.
ReplyDeleteMost likely the hack was sql injection, the same type of attack that took out Sony. This is the easiest hack to PREVENT. Hire good programmers.
ReplyDelete2:28 thinks sql is a sound pigs make.
ReplyDelete