Article

2013-07-11 Government

Audit shows agency destroyed computers, keyboards, mice over virus fear

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Posted by Skidmark 2013-07-11 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11130 views ] Top

Posted by Omavimble Stalin3583 2013-07-11 00:21|| 2013-07-11 00:21|| Front Page Top

#2 "[The obscure Economic Development Administration] accepts the Inspector Generals recommendations regarding its information technology incident... We take the privacy and IT security of all our employees, grantees and other partners seriously, which is why the agency acted out of an abundance of caution based on the information provided to us.

$1.06 million worth of "caution" to be exact.

If it wasn't for that, I'd have thought it was something out of a BOFH story.

Posted by Pappy 2013-07-11 01:12|| 2013-07-11 01:12|| Front Page Top

#3 spent $1.06 million on building a temporary infrastructure, pending long-term IT solution; $823,000 on hiring the cybersecurity contractor; $688,000 on contractor assistance for a long-term recovery solution;" and $4,300 to destroy $170,000 worth of tech equipment.

So somebody's cronies got a big wad of cash, too.

But ... if your mouse (or keyboard) was infected with a virus (paging Dr. White!), couldn't you just "isolate it" in a dark closet(or even unplug it)?

I didn't read where anyone got fired or disciplined, either.

Posted by Bobby 2013-07-11 05:59|| 2013-07-11 05:59|| Front Page Top

#4 Idiots, virii only affect the hard drive.

NOT The mouse, NOT the monitor, (You get the rest)

Posted by Redneck Jim 2013-07-11 08:01|| 2013-07-11 08:01|| Front Page Top

#5 It is possible that they are idiots, but it is also possible that there are viruses present in the hardware that we buy from China. Any USB device you plug into your computer can hose it real good in its runtime memory space, which most virus programs don't check well.

Posted by rammer 2013-07-11 08:52|| 2013-07-11 08:52|| Front Page Top

#6 RJ, you're using common sense. Common sense is outlawed by federal regulations and law.

You or me, we'd just replace the hard drive. However, in government, that means bidding or going to a existing support contract. All of which are avenues of graft, corruption, and patronage (ie minority set asides). The amount of work time and processing to simply replace the hard drives quickly exceeds the cost of replacing the whole machine.

Now if you took it upon yourself to haul the machines down to a local repair/support dealer and get them all swapped out, you could literally be prosecuted and face criminal time. Remember the 'machine' is really good at picking on the little people.

Posted by Procopius2k 2013-07-11 08:56|| 2013-07-11 08:56|| Front Page Top

#7 But they wanted new stuff.

Posted by ed in texas 2013-07-11 09:05|| 2013-07-11 09:05|| Front Page Top

#8 I do have a question for the techs.

Monitors/TVs are becoming a bit more than just display; with internet access on their own, usb movie/music, even built in skype. Would this open them up to virus and/or hacking?

Posted by swksvolFF 2013-07-11 09:09|| 2013-07-11 09:09|| Front Page Top

#9 Luddites.

Posted by JohnQC 2013-07-11 10:07|| 2013-07-11 10:07|| Front Page Top

#10 All government networks should be black sites, prevented from connecting to the internet at all. They can have isolated computers to do that if they need to.

Such sites should have equipment made in America and they should have their USB ports plugged with glue.

Code can be added to NVRAM on system boards (not just hard drives). I worked on a project (customer was NSA/CIA, etc)on how to wipe NVRAM and prove you'd wiped it so somebody was considering that as an avenue of attack a decade ago.

Posted by rjschwarz 2013-07-11 10:21|| 2013-07-11 10:21|| Front Page Top

#11 Yep you have to redo the BIOS too, as well as the disks

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2013-07-11 12:26|| 2013-07-11 12:26|| Front Page Top

#12 "The obscure Economic Development Administration" is really obscure. Apparently its sole function is to hand out boodle.

Posted by Fred 2013-07-11 13:08|| 2013-07-11 13:08|| Front Page Top

#13 Or it's part of NSA.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2013-07-11 13:59|| 2013-07-11 13:59|| Front Page Top

#14 Not always true RJ, a few years back ParaScan found evidence of the Momma Cass virus on my computer. It clogged Serial 1 with a ham sammich.

Posted by Shipman 2013-07-11 14:17|| 2013-07-11 14:17|| Front Page Top

#15 I look at that picture and all I see is what would today be an expensive "actual clicky" style keyboard.

And then I wonder how many of those they threw out.

Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2013-07-11 14:37|| 2013-07-11 14:37|| Front Page Top

#16 Indeed, Snowy Creature, it looks like IBM gold. Kids these days, never get to groove on high speed typing due to poorish keyboards. Quality keyboards are greatly under-rated and my favorite was on a Compugraphic EditWriter and 2nd favorite was from an IBM PS2/70.

Posted by Shipman 2013-07-11 16:38|| 2013-07-11 16:38|| Front Page Top

#17 Y'all must have noticed that I seldom misspell words now, I've got a Keyboard that locks each key as I type (Another obsolete word) and only lets one key work at a ttme.

(No it wasn't a special, just what the computer had with it. (Stuck in a drawer 'till needed)

Posted by Redneck Jim 2013-07-11 17:03|| 2013-07-11 17:03|| Front Page Top

#18 Mice???

ZOOOOMG, they killed "Ben"!

Posted by JosephMendiola 2013-07-11 23:46|| 2013-07-11 23:46|| Front Page Top

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