[ISN] Passwords reset after breach of Navy-Marine Corps network

[InfoSec News]

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=32737

By Daniel Pulliam
dpulliam @ govexec.com 
November 7, 2005 

A recent breach of the Navy Marine Corps Intranet did not jeopardize
personal or organizational information, but required some passwords to
be changed, according to a Navy spokesman.

Passwords for certain users on the unclassified portion of the NMCI
network were reset as part of a "prudent network security response" to
an intrusion by an unauthorized user, said Lt. Cmdr. Ron Steiner, a
public affairs officer for the Naval Network Warfare Command in
Norfolk, Va. There is a separate classified NMCI network that was not
affected by this incident.

The network intrusion occurred around Oct. 20 on a legacy server that
was not properly configured, Steiner said.

"Based upon that, they found it prudent that we should take the extra
precaution and change . . . [the] passwords," Steiner said. "In our
opinion, the system worked as we expected it to."

Because the Navy was able to track and see where the intruder went
inside the system, officials are confident that "there was no big
compromise of any information," Steiner said.

The ports used by the unauthorized intruder have since been blocked
and taken offline, Steiner said. If the intruder is caught, the case
will be handed over to Naval Criminal Investigative Service, he added.

The breach also didn't affect the IT 21 networking system, which
serves the Navy's ships, and the overseas network ONE-NET, according
to a message sent to NMCI users last month.