An Employee of US Geological Survey (USGS) has a habit of watching pornography contents during Work hours and visiting the extensive history of porn websites which drop malware on Government Network.
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), U.S based Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center provide science about the natural hazards that threaten lives and livelihoods; the water, energy, minerals, and other natural resources.
An IT security audit that was conducted at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) computer network reveals that the Employee visiting over 9000 web pages using U.S Government computers that routed via websites that originated in Russia and contained malware.
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It was confirmed by the forensic report he/she saved many of the pornography images were saved in unauthorized personal USB and Android devices.
Officials said, “During the investigation, we identified two vulnerabilities in the USGS’ IT security posture: website access and open USB ports. Malware is rogue software that is intended to damage or disable computers and computer systems.”
The main motivation of the malware that dropped from the Russian based website is intended to steal the sensitive information from the government network.
According to the report that issued by U.S. Department of the Interior’ s (DOI’s) IT Rules of Behavior prohibit employees from using DOI systems for illegal or inappropriate activities, explicitly including the viewing or distribution of pornography..
Also, they didn’t reveal the details about the Malware and the employee details who was involved in this activities.
USGS Recommendation for Better security
USGS recommended to follow strong blacklist policy of known rogue URL or domains and regularly monitor employee web usage history.
Direct employees to refrain from connecting personal devices, such as USB drives and cell phones, to Government-issued computers or networks.
“EROS Center has deployed enhanced intrusion detection systems and firewall technology to assist in the prevention and detection of rogue websites trying to communicate with Government systems”
We further recommend that USGS employ an IT security policy that would prevent unauthorized USB devices on all employee computers.
Best practices for malware incident protection include restricting the use of removable media and personally owned mobile devices.
