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AP Easily Grabs Sensitive Military Documents
David Utter
Staff Writer
2007-07-12
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Associated Press found it could obtain a number of sensitive military documents from file servers simply by connecting to them.
 | | AP Easily Grabs Sensitive Military Documents |  |
It's almost unconscionable that anyone in or out of the formal military structure who calls themselves a system administrator could be setting up FTP servers with anonymous public access, or posting items on the publicly accessible World Wide Web.
But it appears this has been the case. An AP report detailed several pieces of information they were able to find online. None of the material they found should ever have been positioned for such discovery:
In a survey of servers run by agencies or companies involved with the military and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, The Associated Press found dozens of documents that officials refused to release when asked directly, citing troop security.
Such material goes online all the time, posted most often by mistake. It's not in plain sight, unlike the plans for the new American embassy in Baghdad that appeared recently on the Web site of an architectural firm. But it is almost as easy to find.
In one example, AP pulled a bunch of documents related to a project to expand the fuel infrastructure at Bagram, in Iraq. The documents came from a contractor's server, and the Army Corps of Engineers asked AP to destroy the copies they found.
A week later, AP discovered a brand new document, this time related to security features at Tallil Air Base. AP also found it could retrieve sensitive items from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and from the nuclear facilities at Los Alamos and Sandia during its investigation.
There is no rational reason for anyone with information to protect to place it on a public server, much less one using FTP with traffic sent in clear text. One can only hope these military installations and contractors aren't allowing telnet traffic in, either.
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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