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(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick

Wed, May 23rd 2007 9:49am





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..


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  1.  

    Fools and Idiots abound!

    identicon
    gdwntx, May 23rd, 2007 @ 10:24am

    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 | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Wow...

    identicon
    Casper, May 23rd, 2007 @ 10:24am

    All I can say is wow...

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    Har!

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    Amy in Michigan, May 23rd, 2007 @ 10:32am

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

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  

    Hrm

    identicon
    Joe Black, May 23rd, 2007 @ 10:33am

    Musta been some good porn

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  

    BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

    identicon
    Jo Mamma, May 23rd, 2007 @ 10:40am

    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 | link to this | view in thread ]

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

    The Private's privates were pirated

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  7.  

    Well personally...

    identicon
    Stute, May 23rd, 2007 @ 10:43am

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

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  8.  

    duh

    identicon
    Wacko, May 23rd, 2007 @ 11:00am

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

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  9.  

    My Folder Structure

    identicon
    ThXLARR, May 23rd, 2007 @ 11:00am

    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 | link to this | view in thread ]

  10.  

    no backslash

    identicon
    ThXLARR, May 23rd, 2007 @ 11:03am

    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 | link to this | view in thread ]

  11.  

    Re: Hrm

    identicon
    jb, May 23rd, 2007 @ 11:11am

    No just a "VERY DIRTY SECRET"

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  12.  

    moo

    identicon
    Hyrulio, May 23rd, 2007 @ 11:11am

    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 | link to this | view in thread ]

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

    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 | link to this | view in thread ]

  14.  

    Hidden Folders

    identicon
    dobestpossible, May 23rd, 2007 @ 12:04pm

    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 | link to this | view in thread ]

  15.  

    Re: Hidden Folders

    identicon
    Sean, May 23rd, 2007 @ 12:20pm

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

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  16.  

    The Search Begins!

    identicon
    Shred303, May 23rd, 2007 @ 12:26pm

    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 | link to this | view in thread ]

  17.  

    military mattress

    identicon
    joe porn, May 23rd, 2007 @ 12:29pm

    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 | link to this | view in thread ]

  18.  

    AxCrypt

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, May 23rd, 2007 @ 12:37pm

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

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  19.  

    Re: My Folder Structure

    identicon
    Doug, May 23rd, 2007 @ 1:15pm

    I use C:9d79706f726e

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  20.  

    Top secret files

    identicon
    Michelle, May 23rd, 2007 @ 1:44pm

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

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  21.  

    Umm,,.

    identicon
    Cixelsid, May 23rd, 2007 @ 2:49pm

    PGP Disk anyone?

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  22.  

    underage gay bukkake

    identicon
    The Beast, May 23rd, 2007 @ 4:16pm

    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 | link to this | view in thread ]

  23.  

    Why was it even on the computer?

    identicon
    Raptor85, May 23rd, 2007 @ 4:24pm

    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 | link to this | view in thread ]

  24.  

    Re: no backslash

    identicon
    Jay, May 23rd, 2007 @ 4:38pm

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

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  25.  

    HDDVD pr0n

    identicon
    HDDVD Pr0n, May 23rd, 2007 @ 4:57pm

    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 | link to this | view in thread ]

  26.  

    Hiding things

    identicon
    |333173|3|_||3, May 23rd, 2007 @ 6:52pm

    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 | link to this | view in thread ]

  27.  

    Will the fools never learn to use encryption?

    identicon
    Matthew, May 23rd, 2007 @ 7:37pm

    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 | link to this | view in thread ]

  28.  

    You want new tech?

    identicon
    pornland, May 24th, 2007 @ 4:00am

    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 | link to this | view in thread ]

  29.  

    Oops!

    identicon
    Bleepless, May 24th, 2007 @ 11:39am

    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 | link to this | view in thread ]

  30.  

    Why nest

    identicon
    Duh, Jun 7th, 2007 @ 1:12pm

    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 | link to this | view in thread ]

  31.  

    small

    identicon
    steff, Jul 21st, 2007 @ 3:40am

    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 | link to this | view in thread ]


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