US agency baffled by modern technology, destroys mice to get rid of viruses

And on this episode of 'Government is us, and they're doing things right'.

The Economic Development Administration (EDA) is an agency in the Department of Commerce that promotes economic development in regions of the US suffering slow growth, low employment, and other economic problems. In December 2011, the Department of Homeland Security notified both the EDA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that there was a possible malware infection within the two agencies' systems.

arstechnica.com...

Now most of the time when a person gets 'malware' they are usually doing things on a pc they shouldn't be doing, ok not all the time, but most of the time.

So what was the solution for the 'technically challenged' ?

EDA's CIO, fearing that the agency was under attack from a nation-state, insisted instead on a policy of physical destruction. The EDA destroyed not only (uninfected) desktop computers but also printers, cameras, keyboards, and even mice. The destruction only stopped—sparing $3 million of equipment—because the agency had run out of money to pay for destroying the hardware.

The total cost to the taxpayer of this incident was $2.7 million: $823,000 went to the security contractor for its investigation and advice, $1,061,000 for the acquisition of temporary infrastructure (requisitioned from the Census Bureau), $4,300 to destroy $170,500 in IT equipment, and $688,000 paid to contractors to assist in development of a long-term response. Full recovery took close to a year.

arstechnica.com...

Also true quite a few malware detection programs do spin out false positives so what did they do?

Destroy Computers even uninfected,Printers,Mice,Cameras,Keyboards,etc

$823k went to the 'security contractor' for 'investigation and advice'

Man I need to become a security contractor.

NOAA and the EDA rates a DHS notification ?

Classic government incompetence they sure do love to waste our money.

Geez pop out the old Hard drives in with the new cheaper!

reply to post by neo96


Holy cow. Funny, stupid, tragic, AND expensive, all at the same time. Yep. Sounds like our beloved Government. Seriously, they'd have done better to hire somebody's 14-year-old neighbor kid to fix it. They'd have saved us a coupla mil. Oh. But why would they do that? It's not their money they're spending--it's ours. Silly me.....

Who's going to blow the whistle on this actually being a cover-up?
Come on... Economic Development Agency destroying computers?

There's the conspiracy angle.

reply to post by neo96


The Left hand not knowing the Right foot?



This Administration doesn't have a clue.

They could have blown these things up at Camp Lejeune and given the Marines some sort of Fireworks this Fourth of July...............

reply to post by neo96


My question is.. how the hell can I start a consulting firm to advise the government on crap like "you need to beat this here computer with a hammer to fix that there virus problem ..... here's your bill for $680,000 for my awesome advice"

Whoever handled that contract should be in a prison, not managing a redundant and pointless US agency.

On the other hand... everything that has a firmware can get infected. But in reality the smart thing to do is to scan the hw, disinfect and if all else fails sell the hw to iranian nuke plant?

reply to post by Rockpuck


You need to have a pal in government, make a couple of deals, make some promises, scratch some backs. I'll bet that the "contractor" paid that money was associated to someone in government already, possibly the husband or wife of a senior decision maker or a company that person has an investment in.

reply to post by neo96
I do believe my three year old grandkid has more common sense than your average government employee! When one of her toys breaks rather than throw it away she brings the parts to me and says "Fix it, please ma'am". Is it really above their intelligence to download a good malware remover? I swear, the government needs to put the Geek Squad on retainer! I'd laugh if I could stop crying.

My car's engine has been running a little hot, guess I should throw it away and have the government get me a new one or......................................Maybe top up the fluids.

Reckless is all I have to say. How many other liberties will the IRS take? In the midst of widespread cuts and a runaway deficit, how can any federal agency afford to throw away money like this. Oh yea, unless you are an agency that has enough of a budget to produce your own mini-movies

Would a thorough audit of the entire system by a non-partisan organization be the solution...i think so.

LOL I really thought they killed real mice, from the title.

Unfortunately, it would have been a heck of a lot cheaper if that would have been true.
This is just ridiculous!
Doesn't any of their employees have a teenager? I'm sure they could have fixed the problem.

reply to post by neo96


heh. I could of fixed all that for alot less.
This story defies my IT belief.
How can anyone be that dumb.

I could have fixed this for them for a mere $500,000. It would have been a bargain.

And it would have been fixed in a couple of hours with purchase of good anti virus software, or even a free download from Microsoft Security Essentials !

Next time, they should just call me.

Anyone remember the movie Idiocracy?

Remember how the people in power were so incompetent, that they couldn't even keep their cities clean, or figure out that pure water was good for life?

I got the impression of that movie when reading the OP.

In what, seven or eight short years, we have nearly reached the level of Idiocracy.

Freaking ridiculous.

reply to post by neo96

be afraid , very afraid if this is the level of intellect of the people that are employed by the agencies then the us is in serious danger .

maybe they should hire Garry McKinnon to install some security for them .

Garry McKinnon stated that there was no security on the computers that he logged into and that he did not even need a password . that lesson should have been learnt and acted on long long ago .

If this is true I expect there was some financial 'incentive' for those in charge to do this because it is impossible for everyone employed there to be that stupid.

If you pay a security consultant surely they would know that you don't have to throw everything away too...

reply to post by EasyPleaseMe


Never underestimate the capacity for government stupidity in the world we live it seems almost infinite.

Second.

Given some of the people in the UK i've seen who are in charge of multi million pounds worth of computers but have trouble pressing a power switch it doesn't surprise me

Originally posted by Rockpuck
reply to post by neo96

 

My question is.. how the hell can I start a consulting firm to advise the government on crap like "you need to beat this here computer with a hammer to fix that there virus problem ..... here's your bill for $680,000 for my awesome advice"

Whoever handled that contract should be in a prison, not managing a redundant and pointless US agency.

No Joke!

A little less than two weeks after its initial report, the contractor reversed its position, admitting that its initial analysis had been wrong, and there was no evidence of a highly sophisticated attack.

www.zdnet.com...

The contractor probably emailed the correction to the EDA, who by that time had shut down and disconnected thier entire network, believing they were under a sophisticated Nation-State attack.

Originally posted by babybunnies
I could have fixed this for them for a mere $500,000. It would have been a bargain.

And it would have been fixed in a couple of hours with purchase of good anti virus software, or even a free download from Microsoft Security Essentials !

Next time, they should just call me.

edit on 10-7-2013 by babybunnies because: (no reason given)

I'd do it for $200,000

Anyhow, I said it before, but I'll say it again.

The destruction of hardware here suggests it's more of a destruction of evidence thing than it is a defence against malware. No IT guy will every tell you to crush the hardware.

And this is what department? Who tracks what? And gives advice about what?