Saturday, August 27, 2005

Hacker taps into US military database

You seem to hear lots of stories about people cracking into the US military and the Pentagon, begging the questions a)How the hell its done, and b)Why the hell it seems to be so easy? One would think that some kind of military computer system would need to be isolated from the rest of the internet, but seemingly not. There seems to be doors into these kinds of things that are publicly accessible (albeit you need to be a security genius to work them out), and despite the threat of horrible legal action and even jail time, people still seem to be tempted into trying to open them.

Now another alleged hacker would appear to be in trouble for cracking into a US military database – one that contained social security numbers and other personal information for 33,000 Air Force officers and some enlisted staff.

Social security numbers, birth dates and other information was accessed some time in May or June, apparently by someone with the password to the air force computer system.

"We are doing everything we can to catch and prosecute those responsible," Maj Gen Tony Przybyslawski said.

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