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Houston Courts Shut Down By Malware
Posted by
timothy
on Sat Feb 07, 2009 04:30 PM
from the full-employment-for-compsec-types dept.
from the full-employment-for-compsec-types dept.
Conficker is still at it: dstates writes "The municipal courts of Houston were shut down yesterday after a computer virus spread through the courts' computer systems. The shutdown canceled hearings and suspended arrests for minor offenses and is expected to extend through Monday. The disruption affected many city departments, the Houston Emergency Center was briefly disconnected and police temporarily stopped making some arrests for minor offenses. The infection appears to be contained to 475 of the city's more than 16,000 computers, but officials are still investigating. Gray Hat Research, a technology security company, has been brought in on an emergency contract to eradicate the infection. In 2006, the City spent $10M to install a new computer system and bring the Courts online, but the system has been beset by multiple problems. After threatening litigation, the city reached a $5 million settlement with the original vendor, Maximus, and may seek another vendor."
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Oops (Score:5, Funny)
It's amazing what can happen when you "lose" a few dozen pen drives with downadup at various strategic places.
Re:Oops (Score:5, Insightful)
Especially since today almost every computer is delivered with autorun enabled.
We have seen far too many malicious attacks due to the fact that someone thought that it has to be "user friendly". But some of that user friendliness is just plain annoying and raises the blood pressure. Just because I have a few pictures on my stick doesn't mean that I want to view them every time I stick it in.
The problem is that "user friendly" often means "attack friendly".
Parent
Re:Oops (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Oops (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Cool (Score:4, Insightful)
If you're going to roll out a large-scale installation, you do the install on one box, get everything tweaked just the way you need it, then ghost it to the rest of the boxes. I'd think it was clear by now that turning off autorun should be one of the tweaks you do by reflex before ghosting.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Kalriath,
Um, I hate to tell you this but you are WRONG.
I just got done installing MS SBS 2k3 sp3 and I gotta tell ya I was FLOORED when I inserted a driver CD and the autorun on it came up.
Autorun, on by default, ON A FREAKING SERVER!!!
It also took 4.5 hours to install itself (I only had to change CD 3 times)on a 1tb partition on a quad core machine with 8gb.
Fuck this, I'm going back to Novell!
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I don't know if my comment will do any good, as what I am about to say has been said in every story about conficker/downadup here, but here goes.
It is actually not possible to disable autorun by normal means. Autorun always runs, by design (Microsoft is still claiming that this is not a misfeature). It still runs, parsing the autorun.inf and performing every action up until the running an executable or autoplaying.
Saying that the issue is "user driven" is technically accurate but woefully misleading. Autoru
Do courts need computers? (Score:5, Interesting)
From the article:
It sounds like this whole computerization effort was poorly executed from the get-go. Many such projects have problems, since they typically pit bumbling bureaucrats against shark-like consultants.
Anyway maybe they ought to take the database and just pull out the pending cases using ad hoc queries, and send the print-outs to the courthouse so they can get on with their work. This can't be rocket science here.
Parent
Re:Do courts need computers? (Score:5, Informative)
Not true, at least for US Federal as well as many state and local courts.
Who have been using computers for twenty years to my certain knowledge.
Video tape depositions are routine.
Actually it's mostly based on the written word. It is the court record that matters, and that means what the stenographer keyed into her computer in addition to the orders signed by the judge and the documents filed by the parties.
Yes, as a matter of fact, it can be rather like that. And many Federal courts require that filings be made in electronic form. Here is a link [uscourts.gov].
Parent
Re:Oops (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
> Should we consider, perhaps extending federal IT resources down to local levels?
And give the Feds complete control? I'll take the drug lords, thank you.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
After all, look at what a superb record the Federal agencies themselves have established.
No, thanks. All the necessary standards and information are already public. Centralization doesn't scale.
Dear Houston, (Score:2, Funny)
I hear you have an opening...
Re:Dear Houston, (Score:5, Funny)
It's more of a gaping hole, it seems
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Substitution exercise (Score:2, Funny)
Houston court (Your mums PC), was shutdown by malware, and Gray Hat Research (You) were brought in on an emergency contract (Called up from the basement) to eradicate the infection (reinstall windows XP)
Re: (Score:2)
The difference is probably that you get to stay up late instead of getting $large_sum USD for the fixing...
MS Monoculture (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Gray Hat? (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Seriously, what must they have been thinking?
That they were... i mean wear grey hats.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
That would have been an interesting lawsuit (Score:2, Funny)
After threatening litigation, the city reached a $5 million settlement with the original vendor, Maximus
IANAL, but I suspect defending yourself in court against the city (with the city representing the court) could be difficult.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
> IANAL
This is very clear.
> but I suspect defending yourself in court against the city (with the city representing
> the court) could be difficult.
Companies routinely litigate contract disputes with governments. This case would be heard in state court.
Which OS was infested? I bet I can guess. (Score:3, Insightful)
Could it be -- say it isn't -- yet another outbreak of infestations on Windows machines?
If people haven't learned by this point not to trust Windows machines with anything critical, they deserve what they get. It's no longer a matter of ignorance as these things have been widely documented for decades.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Which specific business functionality do you have in mind? I admit there are some. (Tax software comes to mind.) But if you aren't specific I can't be certain that you are being stupid, and must merely presume that.
There are reasons to choose MSWind. Some are even valid. I have a MSWind95 machine that I keep isolated from the net. But there aren't very many. And the ones that I most commonly hear about are just people being stupid and prejudiced.
Re:Which OS was infested? I bet I can guess. (Score:5, Informative)
Windows, of course. It's what every single computer that I've seen in any court, jail, or police station in Houston (and Harris County, which Houston is in) runs.
And I've seen more than a few...
Interestingly, courts are pretty technical down here. The employees are still as dumb, but if you're in Houston City Jail, you don't even see a judge or talk to anyone in person (other than Johnny Law). The pre-trial personnel speak to you via a telephone or a speaker in the wall of the room, you don't even see their faces in the newer city jail. Both jails the judges are linked in on a high-resolution screen, whether it's your actual court (for City, not County) or just a probable cause arraignment (which, not surprisingly, never releases anyone, no matter how ridiculous the evidence is).
Harris County is technical in the court, but if you're just talking to your lawyer in the court holding cell, you don't even see the inside of a courtroom.
Of course, Fort Bend County (where I live) is so non-technical it's hilarious. I was jammed up in their system over Thanksgiving (no bonds or releases on holidays - I was in there for a damn class C misdemeanor, and sat 3 days), and got a visit from my father. The moron cops actually used their network closet as a holding tank for prisoners awaiting room in visitation. I was alone in there at one point, staring at a dusty Cisco router that was at least ten years old, plus what could only have been their video system (which looked even older). I was so tempted to just rearrange cables...until I thought about how long it might take them to find someone to fix it, and how that might effect my release (which was scheduled for the next day).
Of course, the plus side to my county is that judges actually see you face-to-face, and will release you if it's a bullshit case. Much preferable to a high-tech system with no justice at all.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Sometimes the problem is between keyboard and chair, but sometimes that chair was the developer's. If the system had been designed properly in the first place...
I've seen enough machines where bloody Windows Updates has silently failed (or pegged the CPU) that I'd love to hit the idiots responsible for releasing it into the wild with a clue by four.
I mean, seriously. If you were responsible for Windows Update, knowing it would be integral to the safe and proper operation of millions of computers worldw
What a great way to bust out of prison (Score:2, Funny)
Just write and spread malware that targets computers at the Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice (along with everyone else's computers) on a date that's at some point into your sentence. Put code in the payload that searches for prison doors to open, in case we are infecting some controller they might be using. A long time ago before computers you had to tie four horses to the walls and bars of the jail and just try to pull the place apart without the ceiling collapsing on your friends' heads.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:What a great way to bust out of prison (Score:4, Interesting)
Hate to break this to you, but TDCJ is state jail and prison (two separate entities, only handles felons). Entirely separate from Houston City courts (which only handle class C misdemeanor sentences and traffic ticket fines - no one stays in City Jail longer than a week) or Harris County Jail (up to 18 months, IIRC, and still a separate entity). And the only thing your idea would do is cause a riot.
Not that it wouldn't break the monotony. But the chain link fences topped with barbed wire, armed guards, and mechanical systems wouldn't be effected in the least. TDCJ is a lot less technical than city/county jails. It's a prison, after all, not a local jail.
Parent
I'm gonna get rich (Score:2)
...using Free software to fix this problem.
Maybe.
The Evil Empire Strikes Again (Score:5, Funny)
It's as if a thousand bureaucrats cried out "Houston, we have a problem" in terror, and were suddenly silenced.
City Employees Surfing at Work (Score:4, Interesting)
Ok, so if these computers were used solely for official business, there wouldn't be this big of an issue. Lower paid workers tend not to have computers or internet at home, so they use work systems for "surfing." No internet access and email should only be via highly filtered webmail. USB, DVD drives and floppies locked off with zero access.
I used to work in Telecom. Our biggest malware/virus issues were at E911 centers even when the computers were on a dedicated network without any non-911 access. The nationwide 911 system doesn't use IP, so the problems didn't come from outside each 911 center. Those folks were paid $8/hr by cities and were under constant virus and malware attack from workers bringing programs in on diskettes, CDs and USB drives.
The other problem is the lack of understanding that many municipalities have over computer system maintenance. Many localities are smart and cautious, while many others treat work systems like home systems and hope for the best. Some have decided to provide free municiple wifi internet access with the same network their police and emergency services use for remote access. fools.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Ok, so if these computers were used solely for official business, there wouldn't be this big of an issue. Lower paid workers tend not to have computers or internet at home, so they use work systems for "surfing." No internet access and email should only be via highly filtered webmail. USB, DVD drives and floppies locked off with zero access.
I can see this being a major no-go with the employees. What happens when they need to legitimately look up something on the web for their job? No CDs or USB drives can also be a major problem, what happens when the e-mail server is down for maintenance and someone needs to send a file? Etc.
The most logical solution would be Linux. Sure, no system is 100% secure, but show me a single major virus/worm outbreak on Linux that an ordinary (as in, not administrator) would be able to be infected with. The fa
RTFA (Score:2)
It tells you what they are running.
See . . . (Score:5, Funny)
After threatening litigation, the city reached a $5 million settlement with the original vendor, Maximus, and may seek another vendor."
That's what happens when you buy your network from a vendor just because you liked their SimCity games.
Inside Job! (Score:5, Insightful)
They can have the best firewalls and anti-virus e-mail scanner on the planet but it takes ONE person with an infected laptop to plug it into the internal network and do it's dirty work without them knowing it in time.
It's possible they have been infected for months and didn't know it until things started to act funny.
To have that many PCs infected didn't surprise me as they didn't bother to take proper security precautions and audits. System admins didn't routinely check for viruses on their servers and didn't check their logs for anything out of the ordinary is asking for trouble.
I guess the system admins there figured, "Well, long as nobody is complaining about anything we're golden." It's possible they have a very small IT staff and outsource the security details to the vendor who they bought the system from who they are putting the blame on?
We have a security firewall appliance at work that does just about everything but I don't rely on it 100% to make sure it's doing it's job. I go through the logs daily and test it. Just have to be proactive on finding problems and fix it before anybody else notices it.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
A computer illiterate or budget conscious CEO or manager can also deliberately block upgrades to core systems that may require man-hours, hardware upgrades, or programmer time to test and integrate the upgrades despite known security risks, judged to be less dangerous than interfering with active services. I've had this happen, repeatedly, and try to be very careful to get my security concerns in writing in the hands of my manager, their manager, and an outside party so that I can establish that I've done m
This is the solution to all of my legal problems! (Score:3, Funny)
I just have to make sure the court jurisdiction where I'm in trouble gets a major virus infection so that they suspend arrests for minor offenses (why are they making arrests for minor things?) and put off trials.
It's pure simplicity!
How could this have happened? (Score:3, Funny)
The mayor had just purchased a site license for AV360, this should not have happened... ahem. Wonder if they can cancel that check that they wrote with QuackBooks 2009 and the official letters sent out with EMESS Werd 2009... hmmmmm...
Oh please, please, please (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Unfortunately, no, it's not.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Class B Misdemeanor, IIRC (possession under 4 ounces is a class A, but anything under a an ounce is class B). That's pretty minor. You'll generally get 20 days (and each "day" is twelve hours, so by the time you get to court, you generally have 5 days racked up) or the option for probation (never, ever take probation - you're just setting yourself up for failure). Just take the jail time, unless you have to be at work, in which case you bond out, go work, and you'll probably get time served when you show u
Re:Easy fix to this. Use OS X. (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, I agree. Some users really should be fixed.
Yes, in the veterinary sense.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
...Ducks... So sorry for that.