A hacker employed by the US navy found himself in deep water when he tried to penetrate the network of Bath, UK-based lobby group the Whale and Dolphin Protection Society. The navy was anxious to get an advance copy of a report by the society on the how dolphins trained for military use by the former Soviet Union had been sold off after the end of the cold war.
Rather than wait a week until the report is freely available on the society’s website http://www.wdcs.org, the navy decided to launch an assault on their network in a hack dubbed ‘Flippergate’ by the UK media. But they clearly did not reckon on the stout defenses surrounding the Lotus Domino site. Lotus developer Matt Penton, director of Merchant Technology, the company that set up the site, had written a routine that spotted anyone attempting to violate security on the site and identified the culprit. It even emailed him with details. It points exactly who is doing it and where they are from, said Penton. As a professional familiar with the dangers of hackers, he was a little taken aback when he found the attack on the network had come from someone at hq.navy.mil at the Pentagon. For this is the same Pentagon that is forever issuing warnings about the dangers hackers pose to its own security. Indeed, anyone accessing the site http://www.hq.navy.mil will find a stern warning: Unauthorized use may subject you to criminal prosecution. Evidence of unauthorized use collected during monitoring may be used for administrative, criminal or adverse action. It’s a gorgeous bit of double-standards, said Penton. The Pentagon has admitted that the hacker was based at its site but has yet to identify the guilty person. Lotus Domino’s ability to defeat hacking by the world’s most powerful military machine is clearly a tribute to the company’s technology. Yet rather than trumpet ‘Flippergate’ as evidence of its prowess, Lotus is strangely silent on the whole subject. This remarkable reticence may not be unconnected with the fact that its biggest single customer is the US military.
