Weakness that exposed DOE employee data still common

[Audrey McNeil <audrey () riskbasedsecurity com>]

http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/weakness-exposed-doe-employee-data-still-common/2013-11-01

The same weakness that exposed the personal data of tens of thousands of
Energy Department employees in July persists in many of the department's
desktop computers.

DOE's office of inspector general scanned more than 2,300 desktop systems
at 17 different locations, finding that 41 percent lacked security patches
for known vulnerabilities. Missing patches were to blame for an incident in
July where personally identifiable information for more than 100,000
individuals was exfiltrated, auditors say in a report dated Oct. 29.

The office has a criminal investigation into that incident underway. The
information belonged to current and former employees, as well as dependents
of employees. Names, birth dates and Social Security numbers were
compromised.

The OIG's review, an annual requirement under the Federal Information
Security Management Act, turned up 29 weaknesses in addition to 10 from the
previous year's review that remained unresolved.

The review found poor access controls at several facilities, including the
"inappropriate granting of physical access to sensitive facilities."

At one site, 11 systems and devices used default login credentials or
easily guessed credentials--or required no authentication at all.

The report omits the names of the sites because of the sensitive nature of
the findings.

The report notes several positive developments. The department did correct
the majority of the weaknesses found in the 2012 review. It also
established an executive-level Cyber Council, "the principal forum for
coordination of its cyber-related activities." The council addresses issues
that require the involvement of the secretary.

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