this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023

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Pentagon hit by ‘critical compromise’ of US air force communications – report (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave to c/news

18 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Forbes reports claim that engineer at Arnold air force base in Tennessee had taken home government radio technologies

all 19 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] MicroWave 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

According to a search warrant obtained by investigators and reviewed by Forbes, the equipment allegedly taken by the engineer cost nearly $90,000. It also added that when law enforcement agents searched his home, they found that he had “unauthorized administrator access” to radio communication technology used by the Air Education and Training Command (AETC), which is one of the nine major commands of the air force and in turn affected 17 defense department installations.

[–] Finnbot 56 points 1 year ago (1 children)

“It added that a colleague had reported him twice due to “insider threat indicators” as well as unauthorized possession of air force equipment, according to investigators”

Is my favourite part. What the actual fuck.

[–] MicroWave 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Everyone should to read the article because you can’t really summarize all the shit he did. WTF.

[–] Finnbot 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Makes me wonder what the hell was going on over there. Guy clearly had a bit of a reputation so why was he allowed to just do whatever while people obviously suspected?

[–] InverseParallax 18 points 1 year ago

Institutions often reach a point where exposure of incompetence is considered a larger threat than actual incompetence.

Large parts of our (and let's be honest, most others too) military are way past that line, at least IMHO.

If he's exposed it might cost someone a promotion, best to try to cover it up until leadership in his chain is promoted to a different post.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago

The warrant also recounted how witnesses and co-workers informed investigators that the engineer had allegedly “sold radios and radio equipment, worked odd hours, was arrogant, frequently lied, displayed inappropriate workplace behavior and sexual harassment, had financial problems, and possessed [Arnold air force base land mobile radio] equipment”.

. . . Investigators also reported to have found evidence which indicated that the searched contractor had possible access to FBI communications, as well as Tennessee state agencies, Forbes reported. The FBI is working alongside the air force on the investigation, according to the outlet.

. . . The Forbes report comes only three months after one of the worst leaks in US intelligence in over a decade. In that case, 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, an air national guardsman at the time, was arrested on suspicion of leaking hundreds of Pentagon documents.

He has since been charged under the Espionage Act.

Whatcha got there is one o’ them MAGAnazis.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

They got done by one of their own contractors who had a bunch of conduct complaints. Maybe they shouldn't have outsourced that particular piece of government work?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

"In another potential security issue facing the government, the New York Times reported on Saturday that the Joe Biden White House was hunting alleged Chinese malware that it believes is hidden across various American facilities."

I wonder who allowed Chinese Nationals access to various American facilities?

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/chinese-woman-arrested-mar-lago-had-device-detect-hidden-cameras-n992301

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Sounds like a domestic terrorist.

[–] doppelgangmember 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wonder if this relates to the recent hacking technique on Law Enforcement radios? Like is he using the vulnerability I wonder.

[–] betterdeadthanreddit 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you're talking about the TETRA flaw that made news recently, it's unlikely to be related. The employee in the article is in the USA where TETRA is not widely used. Can't rule it out without more details but from what's written, it sounds like he had legitimate access to the information and tools through his workplace and decided to incorporate it into his hobbies. P25 is more common for encrypted voice and text over radio within US military and law enforcement agencies. It has vulnerabilities too but the reporting on those issues is a bit older so probably won't make headlines again until something new comes out.

It makes sense that he'd have the information for military-related communications if that was part of his job (though it should have been left at work). As for the FBI and state agencies, those details could have been in the plans for Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) operations. It's the sort of thing you can figure out ahead of time so you're not scrambling to put it all together when the world is on fire. If they've rehearsed those scenarios with local and federal partners in the past, any officer worth their shiny collar would identify the need for seamless communication in order to coordinate response efforts more effectively.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why is this downvoted? Legitimately, I don't know enough about this subject matter to discern why people are disagreeing with this poster, and why the disagreement isn't being verbalized.

[–] betterdeadthanreddit 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I upset somebody and their friends / sockpuppets.

[–] doppelgangmember 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It seems like somebody doesn't like our conversation

[–] betterdeadthanreddit 1 points 1 year ago

It's not just this discussion, they've been checking in on my profile a few times a day recently (or running a script to take out the tedious parts) and voting most of my comments down to zero or slightly negative. I think they've got about 30 accounts to work with. Kinda telling when they hit comments in removed posts along with the ones that are still available.

There's no real harm in it and I'm not willing to spin up some bots of my own to balance the scales. Mostly just interested in seeing why and how they operate so my internet points are a small price to pay.

Anyway, the radio stuff is pretty cool once you separate out the crimes and national security implications. You mentioned not knowing enough about these topics so, while I'm far from an expert on these systems, I have had some jobs and hobbies that give me a peripheral awareness of how the pieces of the article fit together. If there are any parts you'd like to know more about, I could at least point you toward some resources on the subject.

[–] poopypants205 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Good. Now do Trump.