____/ Jerry McBride on Friday 08 May 2009 21:30 : \____
> Doctor Smith wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 08 May 2009 13:38:11 -0500, Matt wrote:
>>
>>> http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10236028-83.html?tag=mncol;txt#comments
>>>
>>>> May 7, 2009 3:59 PM PDT
>>>> Report: Hackers broke into FAA air traffic control systems
>>>> by Elinor Mills
>>>
>>>> Hackers have broken into the air traffic control mission-support systems
>>>> of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration several times in recent
>>>> years, according to an Inspector General report sent to the FAA this
>>>> week.
>>>>
>>>> In February, hackers compromised an FAA public-facing computer and used
>>>> it to gain access to personally identifiable information, such as Social
>>>> Security numbers, on 48,000 current and former FAA employees, the report
>>>> said.
>>>>
>>>> Last year, hackers took control of FAA critical network servers and
>>>> could have shut them down, which would have seriously disrupted the
>>>> agency's mission-support network, the report said. Hackers took over FAA
>>>> computers in Alaska, becoming "insiders," according to the report dated
>>>> Monday.
>>>>
>>>> Then, taking advantage of interconnected networks, hackers later stole
>>>> an administrator's password in Oklahoma, installed "malicious codes"
>>>> with the stolen password and compromised the FAA domain controller in
>>>> the Western Pacific Region, giving them the access to more than 40,000
>>>> FAA user IDs, passwords, and other data used to control a portion of the
>>>> mission-support network, the report said.
>>>>
>>>> And in 2006, a virus spread to the air traffic control (ATC) systems,
>>>> forcing the FAA to shut down a portion of its systems in Alaska,
>>>> according to the report.
>>>>
>>>> The attacks so far have primarily disrupted mission-support functions,
>>>> but attacks could spread over network connections from those areas to
>>>> the operational networks where real-time surveillance, communications
>>>> and flight information is processed, the report warned.
>>>>
>>>> "In our opinion, unless effective action is taken quickly, it is likely
>>>> to be a matter of when, not if, ATC systems encounter attacks that do
>>>> serious harm to ATC operations," the report concluded.
>>
>> One of the hacks was related to compromises in the online travel
>> reservation system that employees use when they go away on FAA business.
>>
>> This is not flight reservations, it's like "expedia.com" for FAA
>> employees.
>>
>> The FAA systems that control flight tracking run on AIX and have no
>> outside connections.
>>
>> The IBM hardware is not even set up to call home to IBM when
>> hardware/software issues are encountered.
>>
>> Anything is possible however and all it takes is for one moron tech to
>> hook
>> a "world facing server" to the wrong network and the system could be
>> exposed.
>>
>>
>> FWIW.
>
>
> And... YOU KNOW this HOW???
Nope. Windows.
--
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | Linux: mint and self-contained 'out of the box'
http://Schestowitz.com | GNU is Not UNIX | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
http://iuron.com - proposing a non-profit search engine
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