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Nebraska Child Support Server Cracked
David Utter
Staff Writer
2006-06-30
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An attack from a location in Asia may have garnered the thief the names and Social Security numbers of 300,000 people in the state's KidCare program from a backup server.
 | | Nebraska Child Support Server Cracked |  |
Nebraska State Treasurer Ron Ross said yesterday a server for the KidCare program had been breached and under control of the attackers for about forty minutes. A staffer at the agency detected the intrusion, and the server and hard drive affected were taken offline.
"Based upon the method of attack, it is more likely the hacker's intent was not to steal information, but rather to do something malicious since the hacker inserted a virus onto the server," Ross said in a statement. A forensic investigation of the "non-critical backup server" by the State Patrol has begun.
The server contained a wealth of personally identifiable information on 300,000 people and 9,000 employers, including names, addresses, Social Security and federal tax ID numbers, and bank information.
At this stage, Ross could not confirm whether or not this information had been accessed by the attackers. "I encourage all parents who pay or receive, and all employers involved, to monitor their accounts and report unusual activity," Ross said.
He did note stronger security measures were put into place for the new server. Despite his belief that vandalism and not theft was the goal of the attack, the attackers could have realized the kind of treasure trove of data the server contained and accessed it.
Part of the problem with computer security comes from people not understanding just how critical their systems are. Ross referred to the cracked machine as a "non-critical backup server." For readers who have servers containing personally identifiable information on any number of people, guess what. It's a critical system.
The bad guys think so. You should too.
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Tag: Computer Security
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About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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