Recently there was another case of sensitive data being leaked to the public through p2p networks. Among the files were the blueprints to Marine One, the helicopter of of the President of the United States. Tiversa, a security company, discovered the data and alleged that it had been leaked from a defense contractor. The lack of effective security in the digital age is becoming increasingly threatening.
“We found a file containing entire blueprints and avionics package for Marine One, which is the president’s helicopter. What appears to be a defense contractor in Bethesda, Md., had a file-sharing program on one of their systems that also contained highly sensitive blueprints for Marine One.” -Tiversa CEO Bob Boback
According to Tiversa the document was not leaked on purpose, but rather by accident. The serious mishap occurred when an employee of the defense contractor installed a p2p program on the computer. P2P programs, such as limewire, often by default automatically share a folder or even a hard drive on the computer. Once this was done the sensitive data located on the computer was available on the network for everyone and anyone anywhere in the world to see.
That employee must be extremely embarrassed now. He/she unknowingly leaked sensitive data concerning the President’s air transport! Major fu** up! I wouldn’t be surprised if he/she got fired.
The ip address at which the data was first found was located in Tehran Iran meaning that the full extent of the leak may not be known, and that it wasn’t contained fast enough. Many countries regularly search the internet and p2p networks for sensitive files since it is a good source of intelligence. Or misinformation!
As computers become increasingly powerful and better connected the opportunity for security breaches rises. Sometimes these threats are caused accidentally by people who are unaware of the full extent of their actions on computers. Being ignorant about powerful tools may be very dangerous.
Source : BP
