Department of Homeland Security Hacked; Phone Systems Breached

Close to $12,000 in long distance phone calls were made over the weekend by a hacker who broke into the Homeland Security Department phone system. At least 400 calls were placed to countries throughout the Middle East and Asia by the hacker on a Federal Emergency Management Agency voicemail system this past Saturday and Sunday in Emmitsburg, MD; the calls ranged from 3 to 10 minutes in length. This hack is quite ironic seeing as FEMA, which is part of Homeland Security, put out a warning to the public in 2003 about this very thing.

FEMA believes that the reason for the hack is that the phone systems are new and were just recently installed. Private Branch Exchange or PBX is a traditional corporate phone network, one that thousands of companies and government agencies utilize. Many agencies are now undergoing switches to Voice Over Internet Telephony, a higher tech solution. FEMA states the hack happened during the upgrade.

FEMA is currently investigating who hacked into the system and where all of the calls were placed to; India, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Yemen are just a few of the many countries that received calls from the hacker. Right now it is believed that a 'hole' was left open by the phone system contractor while the upgrade was being made; FEMA is not sure why the hole was left open but claim that it has since been closed.

Sprint caught the calls being made from FEMA over the weekend and immediately halted all outgoing calls from the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg. John Jackson, a security consultant based out of St. Louis, MO describes this type of hacking as "very low tech and old school," hacking measures such as these were very popular 10 to 15 years ago; today excessive security measures are taken such as individual passwords for each user.

FEMA sees this as quite an embarrassment, being a part of Homeland Security, and have taken extra measures to ensure that a hack like this does not happen again.

Sources:

FEMA phones hacked; calls made to Middle East, Asia. News.Yahoo.Com