an amusing juxtaposition

[mouseling]

This from a Tulsa Oklahoma news article today.

A new Institute for Information Security, or iSec, is available to the
private sector. "Why can't the Arkansas Valley be the information security valley?" he
proposed.

But, also reported in the news today,

Someone hacked into computers at three Oklahoma law enforcement agencies
and may have stolen private information meant only for police use, the
state Department of Public Safety announced Friday....
The breach involved information used by the Oklahoma Law Enforcement
Telecommunications System, a statewide computer network used by
dispatchers to obtain instant access to all types of local, state and
federal law enforcement databases.

irony anyone?
-mouse

links:

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/artic...A23_hAnew30513
http://newsok.com/article/3110406/1188011081

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: an amusing juxtaposition

irony anyone?

i think the greatest irony comes from the fact that it appears the LEOs' computers were zombied/backdoored because they were surfing for pr0n or warez or something...

omputers law enforcement agencies use for the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Telecommunications System often serve a variety of other functions, including unrestricted Internet access.

Employees at the three agencies apparently accessed "inappropriate or undesirable Web sites,” where viruses were unknowingly downloaded onto the computers, West said.

West said he could not elaborate on the type of sites in question, but Internet access at all 380 terminals has since been limited to a list of 15 approved sites related to law enforcement.

[Gene] Thaxton [telecommunications director for the Department of Public Safety] said the problem was discovered during a routine inspection of the system, which found private information was being sent to a third party outside law enforcement from those three computers.

West said hard drives were removed from the infected computers and have been sent to the FBI for forensic analysis.

it's at least impressive that they have any sort of analysis, checking, etc. routine in place. after all, Elk City and Eufaula don't sound like massive metropoli, and the Kiowa County Sheriff's Department can't be all that large either, can it? granted, i don't know Oklahoma's geography and population spread, but i would suspect these are small-town departments and i'm pleased to see that they have at least one alert tech guy who noticed data being sent out via back channels. either that or someone dispatcher's game of Quake was running extra-slow and he asked the Geek Squad to check it out.

[mouseling]

Re: an amusing juxtaposition

i think the greatest irony comes from the fact that it appears the LEOs' computers were zombied/backdoored because they were surfing for pr0n or warez or something...someone dispatcher's game of Quake was running extra-slow ....

Either or both, sadly, as Oklahoma actually has a "games as porn" law

State-specific Bill HB30004, which redefines a list of items, such as hardcore pornography, which are deemed “harmful to minors”, to include video games which use “inappropriate violence”

.