Gibbons in government
Mar 15, 2004
I just read the Unredacted Report on Judiciary Committee Computer System on Cryptome.org. It’s a dull read.
nn
Well, all except for the alarming part about two-thirds through where you learn that every one of the administrators of the Senate Judiciary computers was really a member of a troop of microcephalic gibbons. I can only guess that they were so proud of their opposable thumbs and lack of tails thatnthey just forgot everything told to them in those NT4 MCSE classes. They left 144 home directories openly accessible to anyone with an account and this resulted in nthe "breach" of which a few ethically-flexible staffers took advantage.n
nn
In my estimation, what the staffers did was wrong- they should not have snooped and stolen other people’s files for eighteen months (and then been caught, it is politics)- but what the scat-throwing tree-climbers posing as administrators did was at best unprofessional and at worst negligent bordering on the criminal. The administrators have an obligation to manage the system and that includes auditing its use and implementing and enforcing security. Did it not occur to any of them that some modicum of security was recommended?