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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Awan story update - Congressmen Failed To Supervise IT Aides With ‘Keys To The Kingdom,' |
| 2018-04-17 |
| [Daily Caller] Only one IT aide currently working directly for members of Congress has ever completed a background check, members’ data have been improperly mixed with other members’ data, and members provided almost no supervision, officials revealed Thursday in a House hearing spurred by "egregious" violations by former IT aide Imran Awan. Members of Congress threw "$10 million" in additional funding to the [chief administrative officer (CAO)] in order to enhance their cybersecurity program" in June 2017. The move followed repeated cybersecurity threats against members of Congress, including the detection of what an IG report called "unauthorized access" by Awan. They also had the CAO and others propose how best to clamp down on vulnerabilities. But the CAO revealed Thursday that members blocked the resulting proposal, which called for eliminating Awan’s job category, that of a floating IT aide accountable only to members. System administrators like Awan "hold the ’keys to the kingdom,’ meaning they can create accounts, grant access, view, download, update, or delete almost any electronic information within an office," Inspector General Michael Ptasienski said at the House hearing. "A rogue system administrator could inflict considerable damage to an office and potentially disclose sensitive information, perform unauthorized updates, or simply export or delete files," he continued. "A rogue system administrator could take steps to cover up his/her actions and limit the possibility that their behavior being detected or otherwise traced back to them." Are you by chance referring to someone like NSA leaker Edward Snowden ? Lengthy article |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #4 From the people that use 'password' or '12345' to login this is hardly surprising... |
| Posted by: magpie 2018-04-17 12:32 |
| #3 |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2018-04-17 08:59 |
| #2 ...Sadly, nothing will come of this. The Awans are in Pakistan laughing at us, and the politicians are covering each other. And I would bet the house payment that Congress' IT program isn't one tiny bit more secure. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2018-04-17 05:11 |
| #1 Futher explained from the link found in the above article: “Based on the modest way Awan was living, it is my opinion that he was sending most of his money to a group or criminal organization that could very well be connected with the Pakistani government,” said Wayne Black, a private investigator who served as law enforcement group supervisor in Janet Reno’s Miami public corruption unit. “My instincts tell me Awan was probably operating a foreign intelligence gathering operation on US soil.” Officials told Politico that prosecutors refused to help them punish top Hezbollah operatives involved in its money laundering network because of political concerns, such as fears of jeopardizing the Obama administration’s deal with Iran. Similarly, the Awans, who had close relationships to House Democrats including Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Gregory Meeks, have not been charged with any crimes surrounding the dealership nor with their House activities. The disclosure of a House IT breach shortly before the election by Pakistani-born Democratic staffers would have had political fallout. No sense conducting full background checks and documenting their neferious foreign contacts now is there ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2018-04-17 02:19 |