After Dodging the Bullet that Hit OPM, Interior 'Owns' Up to Cyber Problem

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2015/07/after-dodging-bullet-hit-opm-interior-owns-cyber-problem/117904/

By Aliya Sternstein
Nextgov.com
July 15, 2015

Sometimes fear is the best motivator. At the Interior Department, this was 
the case when computer hackers stole millions of federal employee records 
from an Office of Personnel Management database stored inside one of 
Interior's data centers. The assailants left Interior's data unscathed.

But point taken, Interior Chief Information Officer Sylvia Burns said 
Wednesday afternoon.

The incident, part of a historic hack against the U.S. government, 
prompted the department to expedite a goal of eliminating wimpy passwords 
as the only safeguard when signing in to agency systems.

The intruders, suspected Chinese spies, used a stolen password from an OPM 
contractor to copy OPM's database, according to federal officials. From 
OPM's network, the bad guys then scampered across the entire Interior 
facility's IT environment, Burns said. All other data, however, was not 
compromised, she said.

"When I, as a CIO for the department, learned of the intrusion, it was 
horrifying to me and since that time, my team and I have been on high 
alert working probably seven days a week, long hours to take our lessons 
learned and do a mitigation plan around it," Burns said.

[...]



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