On YouTube Whistleblower Charges Security Flaws, Lockheed & Coast Guard

[McCamy Taylor]

This is a very powerful 10 minute documentary, filmed by an engineer who has been trying for several years to correct security flaws on patrol boats outfitted for the Coast Guard by Lockheed. YouTube is the people's television news for the 21st century. But still, it breaks your heart when someone like this can not get air time on one of the three 24 hour news networks, even though they can always find time for a breaking JonBennet story, and that murder is ten years old.

Here is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd3VV8Za04g

Here is a Washington Post write up:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/28/AR2006082801293.html

[eek]

1. this clip is a must.

in a real world this would have been a big big story.

sigh.

k/r

[tech3149]

2. Glad you found it

I looked this morning and didn't find it. Another post earlier this evening questioned the story because they couldn't find the video. Another fine example of profiteering on war and fear while putting us all at risk.

[Virginian]

3. Why is the Coast Guard so sure they don't have to worry?

On 9/11 I was working for a government contractor on an accounting database system for Coast Guard Assets.
As we started hearing that the Coast Guard was joining Homeland Security, I figured it was just a matter of time before we would be getting our security clearances. Didn't happen.

When a programmer writes a report program, it contains a query to the database to get the data. The programmer must test this query on sample data to make sure he is getting the results he wants. The sample data is in a Development database which is usually a copy of the real production database. This development database is fully refreshed periodically from the live data.

If a person wanted to know what assets (small boats, cutters, buoys...) were assigned to what region, it would be a simple query. A person with query access who wishes us ill could discover a weak spot that could be exploited. This makes our ports more vulnerable.

After 9/11 the Coast Guard put up barriers all around the building. We had to park across the street with a multitude of barriers between our vehicles and the
building. We had to have all our bags searched before entering the building.
The production database had additional layers of security built into it. Coast Guard employees who accessed the data had to memorize additional passwords.

Access to the development database did not change. We still set our own passwords and had full query access. The data was still getting refreshed. The front door may have gotten a new deadbolt lock, but the back door was still wide open.

Did I mention that we did not get security clearances to handle that kind of data? I think I did, but I didn't mention that we lost the contract to a company that hired mainly H-1b visa holders. There are no terrorists in India, right? No one in SouthEast Asia who wants to do us harm, right?

[mirandapriestly]

4. Interesting, so they

imposed security checks on YOU, but they did nothing about outside threats, right? You'd almost think that was the plan all along....