Cyber-criminal Left In Charge of Prison Computer Network 389
samzenpus writes "A 27-year-old man serving six years for stealing £6.5million using forged credit cards over the internet was recruited to help write code needed for the installation of an internal prison TV station. He was left unguarded with unfettered access to the system and produced results that anyone but prison officials could have guessed. He installed a series of passwords on all the machines, shutting down the entire prison computer system. A prison source said, 'It's unbelievable that a criminal convicted of cyber-crime was allowed uncontrolled access to the hard drive. He set up such an elaborate array of passwords it took a specialist company to get it working.'"
Re:Hmmm. (Score:5, Informative)
Oddly enough, when I start googling for statistics to support your statement, I find things that say that there are fewer Drug offenders in prison that people convicted of Property crimes, and fewer of both those groups combined than people convicted of Violent crimes.
In other words, drug charges, major or minor, account for about 22% of the prison population in the USA.
Oh, and 55% of the prison population are in for violent crimes, and the remainder for property crimes.
Re:Don't they... (Score:5, Informative)
Paragraph 4 of TFA has the hidden "gem":
"The blunder emerged a week after the Sunday Mirror revealed how an inmate at the same jail managed to get a key cut that opened every door."
I wonder if that fella was employed as a locksmith at the jail after having been arrested for breaking and entering...
Re:Stupid Brits (Score:5, Informative)
How about the asshole who gave the asshole gassing the Kurds the gas in the first place?
Oh right, that would be Donald Rumsfeld who completed that deal during the Reagen administration, not Richard Cheney.
Re:Hmmm. (Score:2, Informative)
No. I think the point is prison shouldn't be used as punishment. It's only function should be removing dangerous people from society and rehabilitating those that are able. The idea that we are spending our money to put people in "time-out" for using drugs, or any other victimless crime is fucking stupid and any logical person knows that. Studies have shown that interactive constructive environments in jails/prisons improve behavior and rehabilitation rates. So maybe they don't need mindless entertainment like TV, but I hardly think 23 hours of bare concrete is a better choice.
What sucks is that the government knows they make more money and create more jobs putting otherwise innocent people in prison, than doing what the majority of people want: legalization and taxation. This doesn't even take into account the dirty politicians with inside connections in the prison construction and security industries.
Re:Stupid Brits (Score:1, Informative)
What a twisted and warped reality you live in. The end justifies the means, except not for Turkey who have killed just as many Kurds as Sadam did. Oh and also that inconvenient fact that the us invasion caused the deaths of over 100,000 civilians - at least an order of magnitude more people than Kurds killed by Sadam. What? Is that OK because they were regular iraqis so it wasn't 'genocide?'
Meanwhile nobody did shit about the 1 million people killed in Rwanda, and I'm guessing that if they had, you would've been bitching about it because it would have been a different political party than the one you worship.
Re:Hmmm. (Score:2, Informative)
I meant rehab for dangerous people, if that means providing them with an environment they can live their lives in without being a threat to us... then that is rehab enough for me.
I never said we don't punish people who cheat, steal, or vandalize. Punish them with damages.
Also I said 23 hours because max security prisons often have 23 hours of confinement, with 1 hour a day to move around. That adds up to 24 hours total, which equals 1 day. Maybe I should have elaborated.
Re:Don't they... (Score:4, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Now contrast that with... (Score:2, Informative)
Including a landline telephone, IIRC. I recall reading that they would not let him have the usual phone call because they were afraid he could whistle the right tone to hack into NORAD and launch missiles. Seriously.
Re:Don't they... (Score:3, Informative)
No, they were designed to withstand a 707. And they did withstand the impact. What got them was the burning fuel.
Re:Hmmm. (Score:5, Informative)
This isn't a government problem; it's private companies that won't hire ex-cons.
Do companies in the US have access to that kind of information? In the Netherlands, these records are private, but companies often will require a "declaration of no objection" from new hires for positions of trust. These are requested from the police, and the declaration (if issued) will state that the applicant has nothing in his record indicating a risk for the position he applies for. This to ensure a convicted embezzler doesn't get to work as an accountant again, or a child molester gets a job at a day care center, or a violent criminal a membership at a gun range, while keeping irrelevant facts on that record private.
Re:Hmmm. (Score:3, Informative)
Do companies in the US have access to that kind of information? In the Netherlands, these records are private, but companies often will require a "declaration of no objection" from new hires for positions of trust.
The same does not hold true in the US. Any business can do a felony lookup on anyone once they apply and give said company their name, address, etc. Their are free services, often provided at tax-payer expense, to provide public access to felony conviction records.
In the US, generally it is a financial death sentence to get a felony on your record because you will be treated like a pariah in the job market for all but the most menial tasks. This isn't always the case, some felons are able to make it back into the workforce, but I would consider them VERY lucky as they applied at the right time, at the right place, with the right person who was willing to over look their past.