The Wall Street Journal reported this week that security holes exploited by suspected Iranian hackers existed because of “a poorly written contract with computer-services provider Hewlett-Packard.” Under the terms of the contract, H-P wasn’t required to secure the Navy Department databases. But the Navy, under the mistaken assumption that the computer company was the sentry at the gates, didn’t assign personnel to oversee security for the databases. The lapse made the computer network ripe for the picking. How ripe? So much so, an unnamed source told WSJ that restoring the Navy network took four months and cost about US $10 million. The source, a senior defense department official said that “after the Iranian hack, the Navy took stock of its security efforts and drew up a list of 62 security issues…Some [will] cost more than $100 million and may require asking Congress for permission to redirect funding.” ….[Read more]
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