Human Errors Fuel Hacking as Test Shows Nothing Stops Idiocy

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-27/human-errors-fuel-hacking-as-test-shows-nothing-prevents-idiocy.html

By Cliff Edwards, Olga Kharif and Michael Riley
Bloomberg
June 27, 2011

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security ran a test this year to see how 
hard it was for hackers to corrupt workers and gain access to computer 
systems. Not very, it turned out.

Staff secretly dropped computer discs and USB thumb drives in the 
parking lots of government buildings and private contractors. Of those 
who picked them up, 60 percent plugged the devices into office 
computers, curious to see what they contained. If the drive or CD case 
had an official logo, 90 percent were installed.

“There’s no device known to mankind that will prevent people from being 
idiots,” said Mark Rasch, director of network security and privacy 
consulting for Falls Church, Virginia-based Computer Sciences Corp. 
(CSC)

The test showed something computer security experts have long known: 
Humans are the weak link in the fight to secure networks against 
sophisticated hackers. The intruders’ ability to exploit people’s 
vulnerabilities has tilted the odds in their favor and led to a spurt in 
cyber crimes.

[...]

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