Information Warfare: December 29, 2002

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In Britain, a whistleblower at the Foreign Office leaked information about the unreliability of the computer network system they used. The system was said to be unreliable, often "losing" highly classified documents. It was also feared that the system was too vulnerable to penetration, perhaps to the extent that such activity would not even be detected. The system is so distrusted by some staff that they figure out ways to get around using it. The source of the problem is one that is common in government departments around the world; lack of competent staff to buy the right system, and then run it. In the U.S., the FBI has a similar horror story. Only organizations like NASA and the CIA, with many computer experts on their staff, have been able to avoid these problems.