Irony

From a news item today:

WASHINGTON – Multiple congressional computers have been hacked by people working from inside China, lawmakers said Wednesday, suggesting the Chinese were seeking lists of dissidents.

Two congressmen, both longtime critics of Beijing’s record on human rights, said the compromised computers contained information about political dissidents from around the world. One of the lawmakers said he’d been discouraged from disclosing the computer attacks by other U.S. officials.

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., said four of his computers were compromised beginning in 2006. New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith, a senior Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said two of the computers at his global human rights subcommittee were attacked in December 2006 and March 2007.

Wolf said that following one of the attacks, a car with license plates belonging to Chinese officials went to the home of a dissident in Fairfax County, Va., outside Washington and photographed it.

These kinds of security breaches are not only preventable, they are inexcusable.

It’s easy to blame the attacker, but real problem lies at home. Congressional computers should be some of the best-secured PCs on the Internet. The fact that they apparently aren’t indicates a problem with Congress, not with China. I don’t know whether the blame lies with lax or crappy admins, or with ignorant congresscritters who inevitably will get their way when they whine, “but this anti-virus thingy makes it too hard!”. If action on the floor of the House and Senate to address the latter is necessary, then the more technically-sophisticated members of Congress need to get busy.

Slashdot post here.

Tags: congress, security, software