http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=20b74870-ceb9-4723-a6ee-cf55548e2001&k=21513 Miro Cernetig Vancouver Sun March 08, 2006 VICTORIA -- The RCMP is investigating how hackers cracked the B.C. government's computer network to place unauthorized software and movies on government hard drives, the provincial government disclosed Tuesday. The revelation, the latest in a spate of embarrassing security breaches, came from the New Democratic Party, which raised the issue in the legislature. "The opposition has been advised that at least one breach of security that involved a minimum of 78 government computers and access through [the] highest level of passwords and involving several ministries occurred," said NDP house leader Mike Farnworth. He did not name his source. "Apparently, the government found out on the sixth of February of this year that outsiders had been accessing the system for at least two months." Government officials, who are still investigating revelations by The Vancouver Sun that the province auctioned computer data tapes containing confidential records on thousands of British Columbians, initially suggested the NDP was exaggerating a minor breach in which no personal information was stolen. Less than an hour later, however, Labour Minister Michael de Jong released a Feb. 3 "security incident report" that warned government employees that 78 computers across various ministries were "heavily compromised . . . by an intrusion that has loaded 'hacker' programs and movie files onto them." The attack came from a service provider in the Netherlands. The NDP said it allowed round-the-clock use of government computers on weekends, and from 5 p.m to 6 a.m. on weekdays. De Jong said "this wasn't a privacy issue in the sense that somebody was trying to access personal information. "They [the hackers] were trying to make use of the network." The mystery is what for? De Jong did not say what type of material was being deposited onto the government network and skirted answering a question about whether it involved pornography. But experts have found hackers often try to infiltrate networks with large Internet bandwidth and storage capacity such as governments', then set up illegal mirror sites that allow them to distribute and store first-run movies and pornography for free. Hackers then sell passwords to enable people to access the network and the illegal material stored on it. It does appear that some government computers have been targeted by computer hackers, NDP researchers said. Their search of Internet sites commonly used by hackers dealing in pirated software, which hackers call Warez, found what appears to be at least two government computers listed. It wasn't clear if they are still actively being targeted by hackers. Farnworth said he does not know the extent of the hackers' penetration and has no evidence that people's privacy was compromised. But he is asking Privacy Commissioner David Loukidelis to carry out his own investigation to eliminate any concerns. "If [the allegations are] proven accurate, I further request that you report out on the causes of the breach, the magnitude of the breach and what files were at risk," Farnsworth asks the commissioner in a letter. _________________________________ InfoSec News v2.0 - Coming Soon! http://www.infosecnews.org
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