Shock: Military Secrets 'Hidden' In Porn Folder Got Around

from the would-you-believe-it? dept

Wed, May 23rd 2007 9:49am — Mike Masnick

It was surprising enough last month to find out that a Japanese military official felt the best place to hide his copy of top secret information on Aegis destroyers was in the "porn" folder on his computer. While the thinking may have been right that people looking for top secret info wouldn't look in the porn folder, where that logic breaks down is that the porn folder is where many, many other people might look for... well... porn. And, in fact, somewhere along the way, the porn folder was "shared" with other soldiers, and the top secret information got out. The original report suggested it had just been passed on to a small number of soldiers who were sharing porn, but I'm sure it won't surprise many to find out that there are now concerns that the data was shared much more widely than previously thought. So, once again, as a public service announcement: if you have top secret military data, try to hide it somewhere boring, rather than in your porn folder.

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31 Comments

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gdwntx, 23 May 2007 @ 10:24am

Fools and Idiots abound!
Fools and idiots abound all I have to say.It's no longer a suprise when we hear a story like this . Is it?
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Casper, 23 May 2007 @ 10:24am

Wow...
All I can say is wow...
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Amy in Michigan, 23 May 2007 @ 10:32am

Har!
Oh thank you...I needed a good laugh!
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Joe Black, 23 May 2007 @ 10:33am

Hrm
Musta been some good porn
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- jb, 23 May 2007 @ 11:11am
  
  Re: Hrm
  No just a "VERY DIRTY SECRET"
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Jo Mamma, 23 May 2007 @ 10:40am

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
Yeah, this is hilarious. Good to see that the love of porn is universal among men, regardless of nationality. Inspiring, isn't it?
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Man, 23 May 2007 @ 10:43am

The Private's privates were pirated
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Stute, 23 May 2007 @ 10:43am

Well personally...
I hide all my military secrets in "NO MILITARY SECRETS HERE!!! CARRY ON!!!" folder. Works like a charm!
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Wacko, 23 May 2007 @ 11:00am

duh
For someone who works in the intellegence aspect of the military, that wasn't too intellegent now was it...
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ThXLARR, 23 May 2007 @ 11:00am

My Folder Structure
That's why I hide all my important stuff in a heavily nested folder structure, something like:
C:9F91129D74E35BD84156C5635688C0KEY FILES

That way it's 100% secure, nobody would ever look there or figure it out! Oh, and by the way, if anyone attempts to use my folder structure without my permission, I will sue you!
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- Doug, 23 May 2007 @ 1:15pm
  
  Re: My Folder Structure
  I use C:9d79706f726e
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ThXLARR, 23 May 2007 @ 11:03am

no backslash
Seems all my backslashes were removed, and my extremely witty retort has been reduced to a mere string of hex :(

Why would a backslash be removed from a comment when I clearly checked the "plain text" dot, ah well...
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- Jay, 23 May 2007 @ 4:38pm
  
  Re: no backslash
  The backslashes were most likely parsed out.. just bad programming.. that’s all ;-)
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Hyrulio, 23 May 2007 @ 11:11am

moo
I used to hide my porn in a hidden folder deep within the Windows folders... worked fine!
(in with all the ones that have names like 'X32TRB5834' or something...)
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Overcast, 23 May 2007 @ 11:42am

Yeah, want to hide it from people within the government? Label the folder 'Ethics'. I'm sure it'll never be opened....

lol
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dobestpossible, 23 May 2007 @ 12:04pm

Hidden Folders
Should have put it in a folder that was not part of filesharing, applied the "hidden" attribute, set permissions for folder, and used a third party encryption software to be up to par.
I have the suspicion that this was deliberate treason, planned out so that when caught, perpetrator could claim "lack of computer security knowledge". Even though, the Japanese government will throw him in a dark and musty bamboo shoot cage, beat him daily with an old computer chasis, and force him to eat "yellow" rice (White rice with urine flavor).
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- Sean, 23 May 2007 @ 12:20pm
  
  Re: Hidden Folders
  Thanks for explaining the yellow rice. that could have gotten really confusing
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Shred303, 23 May 2007 @ 12:26pm

The Search Begins!
I'm not looking at porn... I'm searching for compromised U.S. military secrets. I encourage everyone to join the search!
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joe porn, 23 May 2007 @ 12:29pm

military mattress
I'm really old school... I hide all my military secrets between my mattress.
As for my porn, why would I hide it?
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Anonymous Coward, 23 May 2007 @ 12:37pm

AxCrypt
Why not use AxCrypt? It's free and good enough to secure data from porn-seeking eyes.
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Michelle, 23 May 2007 @ 1:44pm

Top secret files
Try saving it in the vacation photos folder, you generally have to pay people to look in there.
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Cixelsid, 23 May 2007 @ 2:49pm

Umm,,.
PGP Disk anyone?
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The Beast, 23 May 2007 @ 4:16pm

underage gay bukkake
In a related story, a large group of pedophiles were arrested in a sting operation by the Japanese military police. Investigators found large quantities of kiddie porn on several officer's computers. In an unexpected development, Classified Aegis missile information was also obtained on the same disk drives. The suspects quickly copped to the espionage slash breach of national security charges in hopes that prosecutors would drop the lewd material charges, cause they know what happens to pedophiles in prison.
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Raptor85, 23 May 2007 @ 4:24pm

Why was it even on the computer?
Funny story and all, but I think everyone's missing an important lil question here. Now i dont know if Japan is different than the US in this way but generally you must secure classified information in a vault or secure system after using it, you can't make copies to an insecure system, you normally have to go to a "secure" computer center and work off it's system, or have a special "secure" computer that's not connected to the normal network to access information. This soldier was most likely breaking the rules just by having a copy on that computer at all.
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HDDVD Pr0n, 23 May 2007 @ 4:57pm

HDDVD pr0n
I store mine in C:9F911029D74E35BD84156C0\

TrueCrypt or some similar type of encryption would be a more intelligent way of keeping it from Prying Eyes.
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|333173|3|_||3, 23 May 2007 @ 6:52pm

Hiding things
Hiding things in all those windows folders is a good idea. i had previously RARed them and disguised them as Fx add-ons, or renamed them to be SoF2 BSPs, depending on the size of the file. hiding things as a corrupted office file works well, too, and for very small files, such as CD Keys, a TXT renamed to .DS_Store is good so long as you don't connect the folder to a Mac.
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Matthew, 23 May 2007 @ 7:37pm

Will the fools never learn to use encryption?
When will the fools ever learn to use some encrption? Truecrypt is free and easy to use. If they want to store military secrets, encrypt a block device and dump it all there. Keep your pr0n elsewhere. Dumbasses.
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pornland, 24 May 2007 @ 4:00am

You want new tech?
well, when I was teenager, I was doing almost exactly the opposite, I was hiding my porn folder inside windows files, nobody can get there, or hide them in an application folder necessary (such as MS office) it has lots of folders and garbage, nobody think a bit to go there, you think someone might be? sure, might be, but I was changing the name, zipping ,passwording it and changing the extension. just so my family won't discover it. I revealed the secret to them after couple of years. hahahaha.
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Bleepless, 24 May 2007 @ 11:39am

Oops!
I am reminded of a routine on SNL wherein the spies are in a WWII Berlin saloon. They are discussing their plans in a low voice. Whenever anybody gets near, they start talking about Inga in a loud voice. Finally, they get it backwards and Dan Ackroyd yells, "Then we kill Hitler, steal a plane and fly to England."
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Duh, 7 Jun 2007 @ 1:12pm

Why nest
I dont understand the nested folders idea, a search of *.jpg, *.mpg or "tits" on hidden folders will turn it up no matter how deeply nested. :)
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steff, 21 Jul 2007 @ 3:40am

small
my dicky is small.. permanently i'm pushing it in my ass..everybody want to have fun with me and my wive ? kises
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