Boy of 17 hacks into missile secrets..

[Paul Wilders]

The Pentagon has had its second major intelligence embarrassment in a week after a teenager in Austria hacked into secret plans, including the location of US nuclear missiles.

The exploits of Markus Hirsch, 17, come only days after British surveillance enthusiast John Locker was able to hack into US spy satellite pictures.

Now an FBI team is on its way to Vienna to question Markus. Their big fear is that Osama bin Laden followers may have enjoyed similar access for months.

American protection of its secrets has never been higher since 11 September, with even the most conservative estimates saying at least £7billion has gone into bolstering security.

But from the computer in his bedroom, Markus was able to get into the most classified Pentagon sites, including the one which details the silos where missiles with multi-megaton warheads are kept.

"Cracking into the Pentagon was child's play," said the teenager. "I know my way round the internet."

Markus, who lived with his mother in Germany for a while when his parents split up, eventually moved into a small flat in Vienna where he now lives alone.

He added: "I don't know anyone here, apart from my granny, so I surf all night on the internet."

source: www.thisislondon.com

[controler]

I don't understand how this is possible.
Isn't all that secret stuff kept on an intranet and NOT the internet.
I know from my past vast experience in the telecommunications
testing equipment manufactureing industry, that most
secure agencies are on a intranet not accessable from the outside.
Most of these organisations have their own central offices also to control their own switching.

[Detox]

I absolutely do not believe it. Besides, the military would know that this kid hacked in but are worried about who else might have??? How would they know this kid got in? Don't you think they would be able to look and see if someone else had been there? I mean, you can check what IP's have accessed a regular site.

All this argument would be assuming controler was wrong and this stuff was on the open internet. Personally, I think Controler is right anyway!

Edit to add this - we dont even use Euros in the States.

[Checkout]

So an agency with billion-dollar+ funding is going to drop like a ton of bricks on a seventeen-year-old, exracting information they're already supposed to know, and will doubtless press for highly punitive charges.

What was it Ronnie Reagan said about "God's most decent country"?

Makes you wanna puke.

[Prince_Serendip]

Even if they use an intranet they have to be connected to something. It has been my experience that no matter how well anything is constructed, the designers always leave a "backdoor" that can be accessed in any extreme emergency. If someone knows where and how to find it, they can get in. As for the 17 year old, he may have allowed himself to be caught so he could be famous. ;)

[controler]

The only way is to be phisicaly sittin g in fron of one of their computers and gane access.
Their sats use wideband scrambling and NO 17 Y.O would have
the descramblimg equipment to do the job. The scrambling is randomly generated and requires the correct decoder on the other end. If a 17 Y.O DID access top secret stuff, than don't the FBI still need old farts like myself working for them ;)
If you are over 40 , forget getting an entry lever job with the FBI.

[Detox]

For once I'm going to check the news, cause I would think someone in the States would know about it too, and haven't heard a thing.

[bubs]

Saw stuff about this a week or two ago - as I recall, the Austrian and German media jumped on a 'story' without checking it out properly - turned out to be a hoax.