Hacking
NCSS was the subject of a well-publicized computer hacking scandal. A lengthy New York Times article of 26 July 1981, by Vin McLellan, described how the NCSS master password list had been compromised – and how a thorough follow-up by the FBI became a learning experience for them. They learned all about how (and why) a young, bored technician might poke around a computer system, just to see what interesting things might be found. In this case, although the security breach was extensive, there was apparently no malicious intent or damage done. Instead, a Kilroy was here attitude got a careless hacker into a great deal of hot water. The lessons learned – by NCSS, by D&B (its new masters), by the compromised clients, by the FBI, by the interested newspaper reporters, and ultimately by the reading public – helped raise awareness about security issues, in an industry that had been blithely indifferent to such risks.
Read more about this topic: National CSS
Famous quotes containing the word hacking:
“Experimental work provides the strongest evidence for scientific realism. This is not because we test hypotheses about entities. It is because entities that in principle cannot be ‘observed’ are manipulated to produce a new phenomena
[sic] and to investigate other aspects of nature.”
—Ian Hacking (b. 1936)