DHS insider hacking case reveals serious network security vulnerabilities

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20110912_7347.php

Nextgov
09/12/2011

Recent interviews with current and former personnel involved in a 2008 
federal investigation into hacking and other network abuse at an 
immigration application processing center in Texas portray an 
out-of-control information technology office at a key Homeland Security 
Department agency. The vulnerabilities exposed by the year-long probe 
raise troubling questions about the agency's ability to police insider 
threats and employee and contractor access to critical government 
networks.

Poor supervision and an unqualified workforce at the U.S. Citizenship 
and Immigration Services facility fostered an environment that allowed 
gross security vulnerabilities and workplace bullying, current and 
former staff said. The Texas Service Center is one of four regional 
facilities that handle immigration-related petitions and applications 
for USCIS, an agency that has been prone to insider attacks. The 
sensitive data the office manages is particularly attractive to identity 
thieves who traffic in false documents; the data's compromise could 
create opportunities for human smugglers, terrorists and other 
criminals.

In 2008, the DHS inspector general found that skilled staffers knowingly 
created vulnerabilities, although their motives are not entirely clear 
from the documents obtained. Today, some employees contend network 
weaknesses and unqualified or incompetent technicians remain a problem.

While probing the Texas Service Center's computers to find the origins 
of an illicit email, agency IT analysts documented unrelated misconduct 
as well as more serious compromises of system security that prompted the 
departmental IG investigation, the officials said. Former USCIS 
personnel believe that among the violations a small number of center 
specialists read management-level emails by cracking into systems.

[...]


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