Company Discovers Marine One Security Breach
March 1, 2009 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
A Pennsylvania company that monitors peer-to-peer file-sharing networks discovered a potentially serious security breach involving President Obama’s helicopter, Marine One, NBC affiliate WPXI in Pittsburgh reported.
Sensitive information about Marine One was reportedly found by Tiversa employees at an IP address in Tehran.
Tiversa CEO Bob Boback said a defense contractor in Bethesda, Md., had a file sharing program on one of their systems that contained highly sensitive blueprints for Marine One and financial information about the cost of the helicopter.
“We found a file containing entire blueprints and avionics package for Marine One,” Boback said.
Boback said the issue most likely stemmed from someone downloading the file-sharing program without realizing the problems that could result.
“When downloading one of these file-sharing programs, you are effectively allowing others around the world to access your hard drive,” Boback told WPXI.
via Source
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My God! Someone with access to such sensitive information should not be sharing his/her files with anyone else! In my opinion, the person in question ahould be fired–or, at the very least, be given a stern talking-to.
Just another good example of how good our security measures are now. Slip of the tounge, computer file exposure, we are certainly on our way to self destruction if this crap keeps up!
It’s a shame that we have people working for our Goverment, that’s so stupid they don’t guard TOP SECERT materail any better than they do.
I can’t carry nail clippers on an airplane, but this highly trained and trusted person is allowed to install a file sharing application? Sure, that makes sense. Why does the company the contractor works for even allow employees to install any kind of software? What else as this person “shared” that we do not know about?
I am concerned about people who jump to conclusions when they do not have a fraction of the information to support such an opinion.
Years ago I worked on Avionics in the military and I have a pretty good idea of they type of information that they may have discovered and the limited actual threat that would pose. However, it is just an educated guess.
It may say where the wires run, or the radios used, but not how the systems operate on a level that would compromise their security. For example, I may know you use a Visa credit card, and your home address, but that is a long way from knowing your account number, date of birth, social security number, and your mother’s maiden name.
It is good that they identified and corrected the matter, but is not any legitimate reason to question the intelligence, capability or integrity of those serving our nation.
At this point, the media pumps out so much information that there is probably few actual “secrets.”
PERHAPS
Those old helicopters, that they have been using for Lord knows how long, should be updated so that we can have our President’s communications protected with some modern technology.
If our citizens are that concerned over vulnerabilities from using old technology, maybe that means it is time to update those aircraft that perform an every day vital role in our nation’s defense rather than making more trips to Mars. . . !!!