Rokkaholik Posted March 2, 2009 Posted March 2, 2009 Someone's gonna get their _____ slapped for this one.... Defense Contractor Leaks Obama's Presidential Helicopter Plans to Iran Blueprints found on Iranian P2P networks, authorities are investigating this serious breach When it comes to national security, one of the keys to keeping the American President safe is the fleet of executive aircraft -- from presidential helicopters, to the ultra-high-tech jet fortress, Air Force One. Thus it came as quite a shock to the security community when security firm Tiversa discovered blueprints of the Barack Obama's presidential helicopter, Marine One, being hosted by an Iranian IP address. The leaked plans included details on the helicopter's communications and engineering. Describes Bob Boback, CEO of Tiversa, "We found a file containing entire blueprints and avionics package for Marine One,which is the president's helicopter. What appears to be a defense contractor in Bethesda, MD had a file sharing program on one of their systems that also contained highly sensitive blueprints for Marine One." Mr. Boback believes the leak may be innocent in nature. He points out that many file sharing programs automatically share the contents of your entire hard drive. The employee may merely have downloaded a P2P client to download music and videos and ended up unwittingly leaking the highly confidential information on Marine One. Says Mr. Boback, "When downloading one of these file-sharing programs, you are effectively allowing others around the world to access your hard drive." Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who consults with Tiversa, says that at least the breach has been fully traced. He states, "We found where this information came from. We know exactly what computer it came from. I'm sure that person is embarrassed and may even lose their job, but we know where it came from and we know where it went." According to Mr. Boback, they have notified the appropriate authorities, which are taking steps to safeguard the President. He states, "They are working through a process to maintain the security of the president." Iran is just one of several nations in the Middle East to comb P2P networks, he says. He states, "We've noticed it out of Pakistan, Yemen, Qatar, and China. They are actively searching for information that is disclosed in this fashion because it is a great source of intelligence." Rep. Jason Altmire (D - PA) said he was disturbed by the incident, and called on measures to monitor P2P networks more carefully for classified information. He states, "Well, I'm very troubled to hear this because there are obviously elements in Iran that are not friendly to the United States and it would be an understatement to say that this type of information could be very detrimental were it to fall into the wrong hands." Retired Gen. Clark aptly points out, "Once it's out there, it's hard to get it back. I don't think the full ramifications of this have been understood by the watchdog agencies." Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verran Posted March 2, 2009 Posted March 2, 2009 I'm not speaking with any authority here... this is just a guess, but... I would think you should be careful about reposting the entire article here. Generally, we'll just quote the most applicable paragraph or something like that and then supply a link to the rest of the article. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coors Posted March 2, 2009 Posted March 2, 2009 I'm not speaking with any authority here... this is just a guess, but... I would think you should be careful about reposting the entire article here. Generally, we'll just quote the most applicable paragraph or something like that and then supply a link to the rest of the article. Meh one less link I have to click to read it. If it wasn't typed I probably wouldn't have read it and shrugged it off with a "dumb Marines" joke lol Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HITandRUN Posted March 2, 2009 Posted March 2, 2009 Had to be somebody with an IT administration access I think. Most companies won’t allow you to install anything on their rigs. Maybe a higher up management member as well. They usually don’t need to deal with stuff like that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fight Game Posted March 2, 2009 Posted March 2, 2009 "What appears to be a defense contractor in Bethesda, MD had a file sharing program on one of their systems..." Any pc that has highly sensitive documents such as this should never also have a file sharing program. What's scary is that I doubt that this is the first time they've used this defense contractor and I doubt this file sharing program was just recently installed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrewr05 Posted March 2, 2009 Posted March 2, 2009 Every person who had even temporary access to the involved computer should be questioned, smacked around a bit and then questioned some more... How did the admins of that company (assuming they didn't do it) not notice a P2P program (whether it be torrent or limewire type connections) running in their logs? Especially knowing that high profile information is on their machines. They should be reprimanded as well for not keeping tabs on their own systems... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rokkaholik Posted March 2, 2009 Posted March 2, 2009 I'm not speaking with any authority here... this is just a guess, but... I would think you should be careful about reposting the entire article here. Generally, we'll just quote the most applicable paragraph or something like that and then supply a link to the rest of the article. The title in orange is a link to the real article. I figure that way, the real author or whatever, gets credit if that's what they're worried about... But if someone wants me to edit it, I will... No biggie. I wasn't aware there was a rule on that Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rokkaholik Posted March 2, 2009 Posted March 2, 2009 I work at a Nuclear Power Plant. We do have internet access on almost ALL of our PC's here, BUT... Any sensitive information is stored on a Locked Up, Stand Alone PC with no internet access and is completely password protected. The Ethernet ports are all disabled. Only certain people here have access to them. You'd think that other facilities such as a "DEFENSE CONTRACTOR", would have somewhat the same criteria... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waco Posted March 2, 2009 Posted March 2, 2009 That's absolutely hilarious. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verran Posted March 2, 2009 Posted March 2, 2009 I wasn't aware there was a rule on that There is no rule on it. That's why I was saying I wasn't speaking with any authority. It's just considered good practice (at least as I know it) to not copy an entire article. First of all because it may have some ramifications for OCC and the Google trackers and all that craziness that I don't claim to understand. Second because it takes away page hits from the original author who deserves the traffic for the content they've created. Anyways, that's just my opinion. Do with it what you will. It's not a big deal by any means. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamikaze_Badger Posted March 2, 2009 Posted March 2, 2009 It wouldn't surprise me if they were fake docs. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waco Posted March 2, 2009 Posted March 2, 2009 It wouldn't surprise me if they were fake docs. Some of the most elaborate security systems have been broken by sheer bad luck. It wouldn't surprise me if this was one of those times. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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