“A computer failure that hobbled border-screening systems at airports across the country last August occurred after Homeland Security officials deliberately held back a security patch that would have protected the sensitive computers from a virus then sweeping the internet, according to documents obtained by Wired News,” Kevin Poulsen reports for Wired News. “The documents raise new questions about the $400 million US-VISIT program, a 2-year-old system aimed at securing the border from terrorists by gathering biometric information from visiting foreign nationals and comparing it against government watch lists.”
“The Aug. 18 computer failure led to long lines at international airports in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami and elsewhere, while U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, officials processed foreign visitors by hand, or in some cases used backup computers, according to contemporaneous press reports,” Poulsen reports. “Publicly, officials initially attributed the failure to a virus, but later reversed themselves and claimed the incident was a routine system failure.”
“US-VISIT consists of a hodgepodge of older mainframe databases, fronted by Windows 2000 workstations installed at nearly 300 airports, seaports and border crossings around the country. Government investigators have found the mainframes pretty secure, but confirm that security holes are present on the PC end of the system. But two CBP reports obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the virulent Zotob internet worm infiltrated agency computers the day of the outage, prompting a hurried effort to patch hundreds of Windows-based US-VISIT workstations installed at nearly 300 airports, seaports and land border crossings around the country,” Poulsen reports. “The Department of Homeland Security’s US-VISIT program office declined to comment on the documents.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Government Intelligence: choosing Windows for mission critical applications. Even if they inexplicably can’t understand the blatantly obvious by reading tech news pages on any given day, it isn’t as if the idiots haven’t been specifically warned, either; please see related articles below. We propose a new rule: any U.S. government department with the word “security” in its name is hereby banned from using any Microsoft software products. In fact, as we’d rather our government computers just worked for a change, let’s make that a blanket rule for the whole mess — federal and state — while we’re at it. You bureaucratic bozos can buy all the Xboxes and mice you need in order to continue the required massive cash-flow into Redmond; we’re sure you’ll find creative ways to justify those items, as usual.
Advertisements:
• Apple’s brand new iPod Hi-Fi speaker system. Home stereo. Reinvented. Available now for $349 with free shipping.
• Apple’s new Mac mini. Intel Core, up to 4 times faster. Starting at just $599. Free shipping.
• MacBook Pro. The first Mac notebook built upon Intel Core Duo with iLife ’06, Front Row and built-in iSight. Starting at $1999. Free shipping.
• iMac. Twice as amazing — Intel Core Duo, iLife ’06, Front Row media experience, Apple Remote, built-in iSight. Starting at $1299. Free shipping.
• iPod Radio Remote. Listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. Just $49.
• iPod. 15,000 songs. 25,000 photos. 150 hours of video. The new iPod. 30GB and 60GB models start at just $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.
Related articles:
Zotob Windows worm knocks out North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles – August 24, 2005
Cybersecurity advisor Clarke questions why anybody would buy from Microsoft – February 18, 2005
80,000 UK government computers knocked out in Microsoft Windows crash – November 28, 2004
Cyber-security adviser uses Apple Macintosh to avoid Windows’ security woes – September 27, 2004
UK Royal Navy will run nuclear bomb-carrying warships on Windows 2000 – September 07, 2004
Axcess Business News: Is the U.S. government ‘too dependent on Microsoft?’ – September 26, 2003
Baltimore Sun columnist suggests adding Mac OS X to mix of government computers for safety – September 17, 2003
CCIA wants U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security to reconsider buying ‘insecure Microsoft software’ – August 29, 2003
Apple’s Mac OS X added to U.S. government list of supported platforms – August 28, 2003
U.S. Department of Homeland Security says Windows vulnerable to attack – August 01, 2003
Department of Homeland Security chose Microsoft due to time and money limitations – July 21, 2003
U.S. Department of Homeland Security awards enterprise agreement to Microsoft – July 15, 2003
Is this an Apple info site or a bash Microsoft site?
There’s a season for all things…
bash microsoft site!
It is a bash M$ site!
This is a bash MS site. Please keep it that way.
People are a stubborn lot. Once we’ve made their mind up for them, they just don’t want to change it.
MW – industry
A routine system failure huh? How can something so disastrous be considered “routine” and accepted, especially by our commanding officers? There’s no excuse for this. M$ should have been hung by the neck a LONG time ago for the injustice and mediocrity they’ve spread to our society.
This is why we Mac folk are so obsessive about our product. If Apple were to discontinue the Mac platform the would would collapse into the worst form of malevolence in human history. Apple is the sanity in an insane world.
Again, than you Apple and Steve Jobs for doing things the way they should be done and for giving people a way out of their ignorance.
Greg M, did you actually READ the above article? If so, what is YOUR first reaction to it? To PRAISE Microshaft?
Geez . . .
Department of Bonehead Security
For something as secure as this, they need a *nix system.
But the governement is nothing but a bunch of fools.
bash
You don’t need to bash MS it does a great job all by itself.
As a conservative I defend much of what the administration is doing, however as a mac user, this shit just seems stupid. Go open source or Mac OS, or just apply the freaking fixes!
And its not like the borders aren’t already open…
It’s a beat ’em bloody site.
Anybody else see this as a metaphor for all that has been wrong since 9-11?
It’s not about one steaming pile of dogmatic bulls**t or the other, it’s about GROSS INCOMPETENCE FUELED BY GREED.
Until Apple releases something cool. Then it’s a Mac site again
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
Bash microsoft SITE! YEEEEEEEEEEEES
Doc Ob:
I don’t think he was questioning whether the news was favorable to MS or not.. he just wondered how it had anything to do with Apple or Mac.
MDN – please leave the schadenfreude articles out and stick to APPLE news, if not MAC news. I know it’s hard lately, what with Apple not having opened its fat mouth since the iHiFi debacle. But there are still people out there reviewing Boot Camp and there must be videos of people running SOMETHING besides FireFox and IE under Parallels. Let’s see how the thing runs an actual application.
Um… haven’t you seen anything else running? It’s Windows, not some partial deployment! People are evn running games at full tilt.
Sheesh.
Common mode failure strikes again. Why do the IT people never understand simple concept as common mode failure? They need to start implementing these software on multiple platforms, I suggest MacOS on X86, SunOS on Sparc and Linux on PPC. Why no Windows? Much easier to port the software on the three unix based platforms. Then virus on any one of these system will only take down 1/3 of their capacity. No platform is safe, but having diversity in platforms, you can minimize the damage.
> Government Intelligence:
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Cigarettes cause cancer and they’re required to have a warning on the box. So what about a product that attracts viruses?
PROGRAMMER GENERAL’S WARNING:
Windows Attracts Viruses, Adware, Spyware, System Instability, User Frustration, and May Complicate Pregnancy.
PROGRAMMER GENERAL’S WARNING:
Quitting Windows Now Greatly Reduces Serious Risks To Your Productivity.
God I hate when this stuff becomes political… BUT!
Deus, if you are a true conservative you should be one of the first to decry what this administration has done.
Continued Windows issues are a massive cause of lost time and revenue. I would love to see a study on the actual cost in lost hours/wages/infrastructure due to the continued use of Windows.
Why don’t your just let MDN decided for themselves what they post. It is after all THEIR site. Yours is just the privlidge of viewing it.
If they want to post Madonna sightings I think that is totally up to them.
I doubt they need your brilliant comments or suggestions.
I plan on getting another imac
-Greg M-
Are you for real?
Make no mistake, MS payed big dollars to minimize the bad press on this steaming pile. If the pc market place were truly a free market the damage incurred by this particular virus could have been much less. No extrapolate that to the entire planet.
In the last three years, at the small business where I work, the company has literally (well documented), lost 7 complete work days (all Windows workstations and their respective operators… Windows workstations comprise about 80% of the company’s computers and related personel), due to Windows born, distributed, and propagated viruses. Obviously this loss would have been cut in half if the company were only 50% Wind., and etc. and etc.
Apple really needs to start putting some bucks into getting Mac OS education in the higher educational systems, and I don’t mean putting Macs in every school, I mean educating upcoming IT professionals into the real world where not everything is Windows, and everything that is Windows simply doesn’t have to be Windows.
As for the government and its double minded systems, well, I’ve written pleny of letters to my representatives and all I can say is, go thou and sin no more.
Not to try to be political but majority if the government officials in the IT intelligence know that Microsoft Windows is majority security flawed. At one time most Departments used built version of Linux and/or Unix that made them more secure because only the government agency knew the actual coding and operating system. However now these agencies are being forced to use a off of the shelf Microsoft Windows that places this country at risk … so why is the government using windows … Microsoft is a major contributor to the GOP and Democrats.
Think that this is BS simply check http://www.buyblue.org and you’ll see.
That’s the problem of our government is the lobbyist control our country with the money that they give to politicians and us as citizens have to suffer any consequence.
Our Government needs changed, this is a good indication why!!
i see we’ve managed to get two flamewars up and running in no time.
At least no one has mentioned the lack of Firewire support yet … or porn on the iPod.