Friday, June 22, 2007

Pentagon hacked

On Wednesday the Pentagon was hacked which compromised 1500 machines (non-classified systems luckily). Interestingly, the US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, when asked if his email was compromised, said "I don't do e-mail. I'm a low-tech person." Some people have asked, "how does he communicate?" which sounds like a reasonable question.

My guess is that he was telling a little porkie pie because his Cabinet boss appears to be having a few problems relating to email right now so probably best to stay schtum about the subject in case the feral hoardes get the wrong end of the stick.

This aside, you have to ask yourself an important question. If the Pentagon can be hacked, what do you really think about when you hear the Government (on ID cards) or the EU (on data sharing) talk about "safeguards"?

4 comments:

Christopher Glamorgan said...

But that would be so different Dizzy! We never have any IT problems in the UK due to spending so much on consultants... can't even think of a single problem regarding IT in the public sector! :>D

guido faux said...

"The e-mail system did not contain classified information relating to military operations, a spokesman said."


Since you would have said that no matter what, then the safest thing to do is to choose not to believe you.

Anonymous said...

The really sexy stuff is on another system not connected to the outside world at all, as I understand it.

Chris Paul said...

Adam's right. Why do you say "luckily"? I'd expect that different systems would have different ratings