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Down Under | |||||||
Aussie customs computer system theft points to terrorist infiltration | |||||||
2003-09-08 | |||||||
On the night of Wednesday, August 27, two men dressed as computer technicians and carrying tool bags entered the cargo processing and intelligence centre at Sydney International Airport. The men, described as being of Pakistani-Indian-Arabic appearance, Racial profiling again.....but as dennis miller says, "when you notice 14 of 19 hijackers all come from the same place, thats not profiling -its minimally observant" took a lift to the third floor of the Charles Ulm building in Link Road, next to the customs handling depot and the Qantas Jet Base. They presented themselves to the security desk as technicians sent by Electronic Data Systems, the outsourced customs computer services provider which regularly sends people to work on computers after normal office hours. File under - "overseas outsourcing,risks of" After supplying false names and signatures, they were given access to the top-security mainframe room. They knew the room’s location and no directions were needed. really? and how did they know that? Inside, they spent two hours unsupervised- on raised floor, I find this amazing. disconnecting two computers, which they put on trolleys and wheeled out of the room, past the security desk, into the lift and out of the building. two specific computers, not just the ones right next to the doors. I wonder why they picked these? The brazen theft has prompted Australia’s top security agencies to conduct emergency damage audits amid fears that terrorists may have gained access to highly sensitive intelligence from the computers. Lets all try to remember that although the average terrorist can't hit a damn thing with his rifle marksmanship, they are not dumb. stupid yes, but not dumb. The Australian Federal Police and ASIO, the two chief guardians against terrorism, fired off angry memos to customs officials, demanding to know the extent to which their top-secret operations have been compromised.
The Australian Customs Service has admitted the security blunder, but told customs officers in an email that no sensitive operational information was lost.
bingo.....now, what was the name of that guy we let go last month, mohammed what-his-name....... The Community and Public Sector Union, which represents customs officers, has asked for guarantees that none of its members is at risk as a result of the theft.
One tactic is to let the indivdual customs agents know that their home addresses are know to the terror community. You'd be surprised how helpful that is in getting your contraband in and out without any hassle. They stressed that terrorists had the most to gain by stealing the servers. "The servers have no value except the information they contain," an officer said. he says this like its no big deal. information is power, you meathead! "They would have personal internal email accounts, probably the passwords for those accounts, and any information harboured within them. Customs officers use the accounts to communicate volumes of sensitive operational material and intelligence to each other, including information from other agencies such as AFP and ASIO. This would be at risk."
bullshit detector just went into the red.....
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Posted by:Frank Martin |
#6 Hey, what's up with this? Them Aussies have cameras all over the damned place, so these guys should've been caught on tape. Right? RIGHT? |
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-9-8 6:12:34 PM |
#5 Tell Mahmoud to call Stevey at the Help Desk: 1 800 ASSHOLE. He should be able to help him out... if he's not too busy "moking meed". |
Posted by: tu3031 2003-9-8 5:01:24 PM |
#4 These two computers are somewhere in Pushtunistan, where Mahmoud "The Tech" is trying to set them up. I wonder: does Mahmoud hail from the Arabian peninsula, Baghdad, Tehran or Cairo? |
Posted by: Steve White 2003-9-8 4:38:45 PM |
#3 BSD is flashing, making "whoop-whoop" sound again, maybe we better shut it off, eh? You'd think SOMEBODY would've noticed when the systems went down. There any operations staff anywhere? I sure as hell don't let external contractors start pulling under-floor cables and jacking up units on MY floor, boys. They don't even go anywhere unsupervised. And that's AFTER a security check. I think somebody needs a new gig. |
Posted by: mojo 2003-9-8 3:04:01 PM |
#2 Doesn't smell like terrorists to me. Sounds like smugglers that service drug cartels and terrorists. |
Posted by: Super Hose 2003-9-8 3:00:59 PM |
#1 If they are mainframes then they are not particularly useful for cracking code or designing bombs. Mainframes have not superpowerful processors, what they have is the ability to drive LOTS of peripherals and have HUGE I/O bandwidth. |
Posted by: JFM 2003-9-8 3:00:34 PM |