800 Break-ins at Dept. of Homeland Security

WrongSizeGlass writes "Yahoo is reporting about the computer security nightmare going on at the Department of Homeland Security. Senior DHS officials admitted to Congress that over a two year period there were 800 hacker break-ins, virus outbreaks and in one instance, hacker tools for stealing passwords and other files were found on two internal Homeland Security computer systems. I guess it's true what they say ... a mechanic's car is always the last to get fixed."

Re:Homeland Security != Information Security

[damn_registrars]

Apparently cyber-terrorism isn't important then?

Thank god we fixed a 40 billion dollar bureaucracy

[Anonymous Coward]

...that failed to deliver when it came to 9/11 warnings by layering on a new bureaucracy on top of the failed bureaucracy.

Clearly what we need is a new Dept. of Homeland Security Security.

Re:Homeland Security != Information Security

[EveryNickIsTaken]

No, it's not. Cyber-terrorism is a buzzword made up by idiots.

1-800-Break-Ins

[OzPeter]

That was how I read the summary and it made me think - Dang the Dept of Homeland Security is so (dis)organised that you can phone in break in requests to their systems

Re:Homeland Security != Information Security

[mcpkaaos]

Kinda like "War on Terror"?

Break-ins at Homeland Security

[Rik Sweeney]

Article needs the following tag:

Irony

Re:When you are a primary target

[darthnoodles]

harder and longer

This post failed to pass my spam checker.

Re:Homeland Security != Information Security

[The Angry Mick]

They're not a group of IT guys or white hats.

Thank you for that clarification. I feel so much better now knowing that the department in charge of protecting the U.S. from terrorists has no technical skills.

Re:Homeland Security != Information Security

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe you are trying to say it is a cyber-buzzword.

Re:Homeland Security != Information Security

[Farmer Tim]

they are charged with protecting the computing infrastructure of the country.

What's Chinese for "pwned"?

They have holes in their security...

[athloi]

...that you could fly a 747 through!

Oops, that was in bad taste.

Re:Homeland Security != Information Security

[morgan_greywolf]

Part of their mandate and jurisdiction is Information Security; they are charged with protecting the computing infrastructure of the country.

I heard they were farming that out to Microsoft India... ;)

Re:Homeland Security != Information Security

[EveryNickIsTaken]

Would you support another breaucracy to take care of electronic threats?

Perhaps the EPA - I'd imagine even those tree-huggers could do a better job of securing networks than the clowns in the DHS.

Re:Homeland Security != Information Security

[_Sprocket_]

What's Chinese for "pwned"?

Outsourced.

C'Mon Guys...

[Anonymous Coward]

We can do way better than 800...

Re:I'll only say...

[bberens]

You see, the Department of Homeland Security is the 'People Person' of the national security industry. They take the top secret files from the FBI to the CIA. Usually their secretaries do it, but sometimes they do it personally. This is an important task so that the FBI doesn't have to deal with the CIA.

Re:Big assumption

[An ominous Cow art]

What's with the car analogies anyways?
They usually suck.

A good car analogy is like a car that lasts many years, without excessive maintenance bills, gets good mileage, is safe, roomy, and stylish.

A bad car analogy is like a lemon.

Re:I'll only say...

[Anonymous Coward]

We're putting new coversheets on all the secret files before they go out now. So if you could go ahead and try to remember to do that from now on, that'd be great.

Re:Big assumption

[dgatwood]

I can see it now.

DHS Mechanic: Umm... why does this car have five steering wheels and no brakes?

FBI Engineer: Oh, it's okay. We determined that you didn't need brakes. All you have to do is put your feet down through the missing section of floor there and drag them until you stop.

DHS Mechanic: Won't that break your legs?

FBI Engineer: Oh, you wanted a safe car? You should have specified that on requisition form 27B-6.

Yeah.... Our government at its finest.

Re:Homeland Security != Information Security

[ArsenneLupin]

I am assuming you mean S&T,

And I assume that GP was just being sarcastic...