(Mis)Uses of Technology

(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick




Shock: Military Secrets 'Hidden' In Porn Folder Got Around

from the would-you-believe-it? dept

It was surprising enough last month to find out that a Japanese military official felt the best place to hide his copy of top secret information on Aegis destroyers was in the "porn" folder on his computer. While the thinking may have been right that people looking for top secret info wouldn't look in the porn folder, where that logic breaks down is that the porn folder is where many, many other people might look for... well... porn. And, in fact, somewhere along the way, the porn folder was "shared" with other soldiers, and the top secret information got out. The original report suggested it had just been passed on to a small number of soldiers who were sharing porn, but I'm sure it won't surprise many to find out that there are now concerns that the data was shared much more widely than previously thought. So, once again, as a public service announcement: if you have top secret military data, try to hide it somewhere boring, rather than in your porn folder.

31 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  1. May 23rd, 2007 @ 10:24am

    Fools and Idiots abound!

    by gdwntx

    Fools and idiots abound all I have to say.It's no longer a suprise when we hear a story like this . Is it?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. May 23rd, 2007 @ 10:24am

    Wow...

    by Casper

    All I can say is wow...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. May 23rd, 2007 @ 10:32am

    Har!

    by Amy in Michigan

    Oh thank you...I needed a good laugh!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  4. May 23rd, 2007 @ 10:33am

    Hrm

    by Joe Black

    Musta been some good porn

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  5. May 23rd, 2007 @ 10:40am

    BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

    by Jo Mamma

    Yeah, this is hilarious. Good to see that the love of porn is universal among men, regardless of nationality. Inspiring, isn't it?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  6. May 23rd, 2007 @ 10:43am
    by Man

    The Private's privates were pirated

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  7. May 23rd, 2007 @ 10:43am

    Well personally...

    by Stute

    I hide all my military secrets in "NO MILITARY SECRETS HERE!!! CARRY ON!!!" folder. Works like a charm!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  8. May 23rd, 2007 @ 11:00am

    duh

    by Wacko

    For someone who works in the intellegence aspect of the military, that wasn't too intellegent now was it...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  9. May 23rd, 2007 @ 11:00am

    My Folder Structure

    by ThXLARR

    That's why I hide all my important stuff in a heavily nested folder structure, something like:
    C:9F91129D74E35BD84156C5635688C0KEY FILES

    That way it's 100% secure, nobody would ever look there or figure it out! Oh, and by the way, if anyone attempts to use my folder structure without my permission, I will sue you!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  10. May 23rd, 2007 @ 11:03am

    no backslash

    by ThXLARR

    Seems all my backslashes were removed, and my extremely witty retort has been reduced to a mere string of hex :(

    Why would a backslash be removed from a comment when I clearly checked the "plain text" dot, ah well...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  11. May 23rd, 2007 @ 11:11am

    Re: Hrm

    by jb

    No just a "VERY DIRTY SECRET"

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  12. May 23rd, 2007 @ 11:11am

    moo

    by Hyrulio

    I used to hide my porn in a hidden folder deep within the Windows folders... worked fine!
    (in with all the ones that have names like 'X32TRB5834' or something...)

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  13. May 23rd, 2007 @ 11:42am
    by Overcast

    Yeah, want to hide it from people within the government? Label the folder 'Ethics'. I'm sure it'll never be opened....

    lol

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  14. May 23rd, 2007 @ 12:04pm

    Hidden Folders

    by dobestpossible

    Should have put it in a folder that was not part of filesharing, applied the "hidden" attribute, set permissions for folder, and used a third party encryption software to be up to par.
    I have the suspicion that this was deliberate treason, planned out so that when caught, perpetrator could claim "lack of computer security knowledge". Even though, the Japanese government will throw him in a dark and musty bamboo shoot cage, beat him daily with an old computer chasis, and force him to eat "yellow" rice (White rice with urine flavor).

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  15. May 23rd, 2007 @ 12:20pm

    Re: Hidden Folders

    by Sean

    Thanks for explaining the yellow rice. that could have gotten really confusing

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  16. May 23rd, 2007 @ 12:26pm

    The Search Begins!

    by Shred303

    I'm not looking at porn... I'm searching for compromised U.S. military secrets. I encourage everyone to join the search!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  17. May 23rd, 2007 @ 12:29pm

    military mattress

    by joe porn

    I'm really old school... I hide all my military secrets between my mattress.
    As for my porn, why would I hide it?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  18. May 23rd, 2007 @ 12:37pm

    AxCrypt

    by Anonymous Coward

    Why not use AxCrypt? It's free and good enough to secure data from porn-seeking eyes.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  19. May 23rd, 2007 @ 1:15pm

    Re: My Folder Structure

    by Doug

    I use C:9d79706f726e

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  20. May 23rd, 2007 @ 1:44pm

    Top secret files

    by Michelle

    Try saving it in the vacation photos folder, you generally have to pay people to look in there.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  21. May 23rd, 2007 @ 2:49pm

    Umm,,.

    by Cixelsid

    PGP Disk anyone?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  22. May 23rd, 2007 @ 4:16pm

    underage gay bukkake

    by The Beast

    In a related story, a large group of pedophiles were arrested in a sting operation by the Japanese military police. Investigators found large quantities of kiddie porn on several officer's computers. In an unexpected development, Classified Aegis missile information was also obtained on the same disk drives. The suspects quickly copped to the espionage slash breach of national security charges in hopes that prosecutors would drop the lewd material charges, cause they know what happens to pedophiles in prison.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  23. May 23rd, 2007 @ 4:24pm

    Why was it even on the computer?

    Funny story and all, but I think everyone's missing an important lil question here. Now i dont know if Japan is different than the US in this way but generally you must secure classified information in a vault or secure system after using it, you can't make copies to an insecure system, you normally have to go to a "secure" computer center and work off it's system, or have a special "secure" computer that's not connected to the normal network to access information. This soldier was most likely breaking the rules just by having a copy on that computer at all.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  24. May 23rd, 2007 @ 4:38pm

    Re: no backslash

    by Jay

    The backslashes were most likely parsed out.. just bad programming.. that’s all ;-)

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  25. May 23rd, 2007 @ 4:57pm

    HDDVD pr0n

    by HDDVD Pr0n

    I store mine in C:9F911029D74E35BD84156C0\

    TrueCrypt or some similar type of encryption would be a more intelligent way of keeping it from Prying Eyes.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  26. May 23rd, 2007 @ 6:52pm

    Hiding things

    by |333173|3|_||3

    Hiding things in all those windows folders is a good idea. i had previously RARed them and disguised them as Fx add-ons, or renamed them to be SoF2 BSPs, depending on the size of the file. hiding things as a corrupted office file works well, too, and for very small files, such as CD Keys, a TXT renamed to .DS_Store is good so long as you don't connect the folder to a Mac.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  27. May 23rd, 2007 @ 7:37pm

    Will the fools never learn to use encryption?

    by Matthew

    When will the fools ever learn to use some encrption? Truecrypt is free and easy to use. If they want to store military secrets, encrypt a block device and dump it all there. Keep your pr0n elsewhere. Dumbasses.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  28. May 24th, 2007 @ 4:00am

    You want new tech?

    by pornland

    well, when I was teenager, I was doing almost exactly the opposite, I was hiding my porn folder inside windows files, nobody can get there, or hide them in an application folder necessary (such as MS office) it has lots of folders and garbage, nobody think a bit to go there, you think someone might be? sure, might be, but I was changing the name, zipping ,passwording it and changing the extension. just so my family won't discover it. I revealed the secret to them after couple of years. hahahaha.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  29. May 24th, 2007 @ 11:39am

    Oops!

    by Bleepless

    I am reminded of a routine on SNL wherein the spies are in a WWII Berlin saloon. They are discussing their plans in a low voice. Whenever anybody gets near, they start talking about Inga in a loud voice. Finally, they get it backwards and Dan Ackroyd yells, "Then we kill Hitler, steal a plane and fly to England."

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  30. Jun 7th, 2007 @ 1:12pm

    Why nest

    by Duh

    I dont understand the nested folders idea, a search of *.jpg, *.mpg or "tits" on hidden folders will turn it up no matter how deeply nested. :)

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  31. Jul 21st, 2007 @ 3:40am

    small

    by steff

    my dicky is small.. permanently i'm pushing it in my ass..everybody want to have fun with me and my wive ? kises

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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