NEWS: Hacked!

This is still developing so there's not much info right now, but apparently government computers have been attacked, including ones at White Sands Missile Range.



That's all there is right now, I'm sure more information is to come pretty soon. Someone should have warned Stakkato that's a huge no no.

This is probably a ploy to start doing away with Internet access.

I could be wrong.

This is bad. VERY bad.

For the level of penetration to extend to places like White Sands you have to wonder just what kind of information they have now.

I'm worried about this one.

with such a hack you gotta wonder if it was a government who did this.

there IS a rather simple solution to this. STOP haveing such critical systoms attached to the net. seriously NOTHING is ever 100% secure, i mean apsolutely NOTHING. there is always a way arround any type of protection. from a lock to a security systom utilizing lazers and pressure plates. if someone can think of a way to secure it then someone else (or even the same person) can defeat it. heck even if they were not attached to a phone line someone could just break in and play with the computers. nothing is ever or will ever be totaly secure. to think otherwise is to be delusianal.

Originally posted by namehere
with such a hack you gotta wonder if it was a government who did this.

I doubt it. Governments are usually smart enough not to do something like that. It was probably some kid trying to prove he can do it......or at least I hope that's the case.

this is really scary, I wonder why the major media hasn't picked up on this, I can't find anything on the web and i can't get to a tv right now.

Originally posted by worldwatcher
this is really scary, I wonder why the major media hasn't picked up on this, I can't find anything on the web and i can't get to a tv right now.

Probably because the only 'news agency' reporting this right now is The Drudge Report.

Maybe?

Originally posted by dgtempe
This is probably a ploy to start doing away with Internet access.

I could be wrong.

I find it interesting that this is your first reaction. We live in an age of complete cynicism towards our government with due reason. We are like beaten dogs, flinching at the slightest cause for provocation of legislature, as a result of decades of exposure to the corrupt and askew system of the quid-pro-quo political marketplace.

I fear that you may be on to something. As Internet crimes become more serious, so may the Internet Police.

Zip

If this helps at all, a recent Google search returned little information on the word Stakkato. The first two links point to a German jumping horse named Stakkato. The next is for a signal flare gun. After that it fades into greater obscurity. The most frequent hits are for the horse.

Assuming that the hack originated in Europe and that the name Stakkato is related to the hackers, it it possible that we're looking at an attack from individuals in Germany. There has been a series of ties between al Qaeda and Germany including the infamous Hamburg cell.

Could Germany be the new center for al Qaeda's modern attacks? As some think that a cyber attack was not a question of if, but of when, it would make sense to base your assets in a place like Germany. It has a solid technology infrastructure. It is fairly centrally located in Europe (which is now easy to travel through with a passport from an EU country).

Hope for the best...expect the worst.

Link now available to New York Times post:

Link

The case remains under investigation. But attention is focused on a 16-year-old in Uppsala, Sweden, who was charged in March with breaking into university computers in his hometown. Investigators in the American break-ins ultimately traced the intrusions back to the Uppsala university network.

The F.B.I. and the Swedish police said they were working together on the case, and one F.B.I. official said efforts in Britain and other countries were aimed at identifying accomplices. "As a result of recent actions" by law enforcement, an F.B.I. statement said, "the criminal activity appears to have stopped."

[edit on 9-5-2005 by UM_Gazz]

you mean this happened last year!!!???
from the times article above

The intrusions were first publicly reported in April 2004 when several of the nation's supercomputer laboratories acknowledged break-ins into computers connected to the TeraGrid, a high-speed data network serving those labs, which conduct unclassified research into a range of scientific problems.

okay now I can calm my imagination down about renegade hackers and missiles and off shore bank accounts.

From what I take from the NY Times article is this has been an ongoing investigation over a year.. numorus attacks.. and it seems it is just now being made public??

This could mean they have solved the case now.. I don't know.

Interesting though.

*stunned* White Sands? *Googles for nearest fallout shelter*

Would You Like To Play A Game?

The suspect is a 16-year-old kid in Sweden.

Formula For Trouble:

1 Computer
1 Internet Connection
1 Bored Teenager
1 Long Winter

Shake well. Serves 7 billion.

Originally posted by drogo
there IS a rather simple solution to this. STOP haveing such critical systoms attached to the net

Good point drogo & I happen to have an old friend who did work on critical DoD systems and indeed he assured me that they are not connected to any outside system. In fact I'm told these systems are behind some very large & thick doors & the only access to them is entry through those doors & there is no public telephone systems inside these facilities. Mission critical systems have never been connected to public networks & never will be. Movies like wargames are purely fictional and cannot happen unless you're on the inside.

As far as systems that were compromised (I don't know directly & I couldn't locate the article just my WAG) I'm sure they're just outside administrative systems that do the day to day work such personnel scheduling & other such mundane tasks and there's always people who want or need access to some of that data no matter what their locations - those systems will always be ripe for compromise. People have to move around therefore they will always need access to their systems - there will never be anyway around that. Compromise of these systems can be an expensive headache but you can be sure that nobody's intercepting launch codes or anything real critical.

Maybe some base wont get their toilet paper delivered ontime or the checks may be a week late, but no outside force will ever start an unauthorized missile launch nor will they block one from being started. Unless they have someone on the inside of a facility that handles such stuff or they are able to disable such a facility somehow.

[edit on 10-5-2005 by outsider]

Originally posted by Zipdot


I fear that you may be on to something. As Internet crimes become more serious, so may the Internet Police.

Zip

Don't verify her redundant sycophantic rantings.

Right, because we're going to do away with a several billion dollar industry because of something that was done by a European. Well if so you have to believe either the US controls the entirety of the world, which I think the French at least have something to say...

Or the US owns the internet. Even most West Virginian's realize that's not true.

I sat and watched my friend crack several thousand "numbers" from a major website. It's a lot easier than most people know. And as Majic said.....it's a 16 year old friggin' kid.

Originally posted by drogo
there IS a rather simple solution to this. STOP haveing such critical systoms attached to the net

At home i have 2 computers, one attached and one free from connection to the internet... just being carefull

Errmmm....

Either ive been watching to much 24 or this all sounds far to familiar.

Originally posted by AndrewTB
Errmmm....

Either ive been watching to much 24 or this all sounds far to familiar.

it does, doesnt it?
*thinks to where he has heard this before*