Nuclear reactor sysadmin accused of hacking 220,000 US Navy sailors' details

[bananas]

Source: The Register

A former US Navy sysadmin who worked in an aircraft carrier's nuclear reactor department has been charged with hacking into government networks using the USN's own computers.

Prosecutors have alleged that Nicholas Paul Knight, 27, of Chantilly, Virginia, and his co-accused, 20-year-old Daniel Trenton of Salem, Illinois, were leading members of a blackhat group called Team Digi7al.

<snip>

Prosecutors said: "Knight called himself a 'nuclear black hat' who fought for the people of the United States, not the government."

<snip>

Their alleged targets include the USN's Navy-SWM database, containing private information about 220,000 USN sailors; the United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which provides mapping information to the military, and Los Alamos National Laboratory, the government-run institution which built the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War Two.

Naval tech bods had to spend $514,000 to fix the problems caused by Team Digi7al's hack into the Navy's systems and even had to set up a call centre to help sailors who were affected by the attack.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/07/us_navy_sysadmin_accused_of_hacking_220k_sailors_details/

[Helen Borg]

1. If the NSA does it and it's OK...

Then why cannot these guys? They did not break anything...

[Blue_Tires]

2. I was wondering who would be the first

to voice support for these two... And it came in the first reply -- Congratulations...

[jtuck004]

3. Uh...they scanned for security holes. If the holes had been fixed like they should have been in the

first place, they would have had no success. The tools to scan them are used frequently by Navy computer security people (they are some of the best network security people in the world, btw - which isn't that comforting here) so why weren't they used first by the good guys? Those tools are used everywhere else. Well, except for Target, perhaps.

...
"Naval tech bods had to spend $514,000 to fix the problems caused by Team Digi7al's hack into the Navy's systems and even had to set up a call centre to help sailors who were affected by the attack.

Prosecutors said many of the hacks followed the same pattern. First, a team member scanned websites for security holes, taking "a particular interest in hacking government websites including military, educational, intelligence, homeland security and critical infrastructure"."
...

So they would have left these holes open for others if it hadn't been for this? nu-uh, This is money they should have spent before this ever happened.

They should also take a look at the continued employment of anyone that was responsible for these systems, and if they left the holes open or didn't apply patches properly, fire them. And maybe charge them with negligence.

But obtaining and sharing info...that is a whole 'nother category.

[bananas]

5. Back in October, US officials revealed that hackers ...

Check out the last two paragraphs of this story:

http://www.itproportal.com/2014/05/07/nuclear-reactor-admin-arrested-for-running-anti-government-hacking-ring/

Nuclear reactor admin arrested for running anti-government hacking ring
07 May 2014 by Paul Cooper

A US Navy systems administrator has been arrested on charges of acting as the ringleader of an anti-government hacking group.

<snip>

Back in October, US officials revealed that hackers either working for or on behalf of the Iranian government had infiltrated the largest internal computer network in the world, the The Navy and Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI).

Days later, an Iranian cyber commander was found dead in the city of Karaj.

[jtuck004]

6. So, when patches and anti-virus software aren't enough...

"It's also possible that an assassination of such a senior cyber defence specialist could be designed to reduce Iran's ability to defend itself against cyber-attacks like the Stuxnet worm that was unleashed on its nuclear centrifuges and discovered in 2010.

Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/2013/10/03/iranian-cyber-commander-found-dead-days-after-us-navy-hack/#ixzz315JDJfaU
"

A lot of countries would benefit from that, in their little games. Wish we could direct all that talent to figuring out how to quit screwing up the climate, or ending hunger, or getting rid of banksters, or something.

[Hekate]

4. Expect to see this on an episode of NCIS shortly. nt