Using applications easily found online, together with a touch of social engineering, a 28-year-old consultant was able to pull hashes from FBI data bases and crack the bureau's classified computer system, accessing the passwords of 38,000 employees including FBI director Robert S. Mueller III's.
"As a direct result, the bureau said it was forced to temporarily shut down its network and commit thousands of man-hours and millions of dollars to ensure no sensitive information was lost or misused," says The Washington Post, going on that Joseph Thomas Colon hadn't, "intended to harm national security" but his, " 'curiosity hacks' nonetheless exposed sensitive information". "Colon, 28, an employee of BAE Systems who was assigned to the FBI field office in Springfield, Ill., said in court filings that he used the passwords and other information to bypass bureaucratic obstacles and better help the FBI install its new computer system. And he said agents in the Springfield office approved his actions."
Colon admitted to four counts of intentionally accessing a computer while exceeding authorized access and obtaining information from any department of the US and now faces up to 18 months in jail, The Washington Post, pointing out, "He has lost his job with BAE Systems, and his top-secret clearance has also been revoked."
Colon's lawyers said FBI officials in the Springfield office, "approved of what he was doing, and that one agent even gave Colon his own password, enabling him to get to the encrypted database in March 2004," says The Washington Post.
"Because FBI employees are required to change their passwords every 90 days, Colon hacked into the system on three later occasions to update his password list."
The FBI's struggle to modernize its computer system has been a recurring headache for Mueller and has generated considerable criticism from lawmakers, the story adds.
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