A correspondent from The San Francisco Chronicle has managed to find out secret information from the Internet about the aircraft that U.S. President George Bush uses. The confidential information was freely available on the site of a U.S. Air Force base. According to the InfoWatch analytical center, the American military has serious problems with its classified information and establishing an IT security policy.
The newspaper did not reveal exactly where it found the secret information, but the fact that it was confidential is not in doubt. For example, the site contained detailed descriptions of the anti-missile systems on two of the U.S. president’s aircraft. The interior layout of the presidential aircraft was also freely available. In other words, anyone using the World Wide Web can locate specific targets on the presidential aircraft such as oxygen tanks or the special agents accompanying the president. It is exactly the kind of information that can assist potential attackers to choose the most effective weapon and method of assassinating the U.S. head of state. It now means that the security services protecting the president will have to be even more careful and possibly have to make significant changes to their work procedures.
Although the newspaper did not reveal its source to the general public, it has contacted the U.S. Secret Service about the incident. There has so far been no official comment from any state officials. Any information about the two Boeing 747–200B airliners that George Bush makes use of for lengthy flights is supposed to be top secret.
“It looks like the information that ended up on the Internet was either classified wrongly as being freely accessible, or else it slipped through the IT security policy. In either case, the U.S. Air Force will have to reassess its approach to internal security and spend a lot of time putting those problems right. These types of incidents are not uncommon: some industrious journalists have already found lists of current CIA agents and details of the agency’s secret facilities on the Internet. It just goes to show once again how the negligence, carelessness or deliberate actions of insiders can threaten the security of a whole country," maintains Denis Zenkin, marketing director at InfoWatch.
Source: CNews
