http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/cyber-warfare-capitol-114383.html
By TAL KOPAN
Politico.com
1/19/15
Congressional staffers are the gateway to all lawmaking on the Hill, but
they also may be unwittingly opening the door to hackers.
The Hill’s networks are under constant attack. In 2013 alone, the Senate
Sergeant at Arms’ office said it investigated 500 potential examples of
malicious software, some from sophisticated attackers and others from
low-level scammers. And that’s just the serious cases — in a different
measurement, the House IT security office said in 2012 it blocked 16.5
million “intrusion attempts” on its networks.
But the thousands of men and women who keep Congress running every day are
committing the basic cybersecurity mistakes that attackers can exploit to
do harm — like in the CENTCOM social media hack or crippling breach of
Sony Pictures Entertainment.
POLITICO interviews with nearly a dozen current and former staffers, as
well as congressional IT security staff, reveal a typical array of poor
cyber habits.
Most of the staffers interviewed had emailed security passwords to a
colleague or to themselves for convenience. Plenty of offices stored a
list of passwords for communal accounts like social media in a shared
drive or Google doc. Most said they individually didn’t think about
cybersecurity on a regular basis, despite each one working in an office
that dealt with cyber or technology issues. Most kept their personal email
open throughout the day. Some were able to download software from the
Internet onto their computers. Few could remember any kind of IT security
training, and if they did, it wasn’t taken seriously.
[...]
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