'Idiots' simplify hacking, CSC director tells news agency
A DHS experiment to test the ease of hacking shows more than half the people who find unknown computer discs or thumb drives will plug them into their office computers to see what's on them, exposing the systems to viruses and hacking.
The Homeland Security Department ran a test this year to see how hard it was for hackers to corrupt workers and gain access to their computer systems, and the answer was – not very, according to a Bloomberg News report.
DHS employees dropped computer discs and USB thumb drives in the parking lots of government buildings and private contractors to see who would pick them up.
Of those who did, 60 percent plugged the devices into office computers, curious to see what they contained. If the drive or CD case had an official logo, 90 percent were installed.
“There’s no device known to mankind that will prevent people from being idiots,” Mark Rasch, Computer Services Corp.’s director of network security and privacy consulting, told the business news agency.
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