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By Graham Hayday, 19 August 2002 11:56

NEWS The US army network has been breached by a company which likened its lack of security to "coming across the Pentagon and seeing a door open with no one guarding it". Consultants from US security specialist ForensicTec came across poorly protected PCs on the network of the Fort Hood army base in Texas while working with another client, and were able view such items as email messages, personnel records and financial data using free software which is widely available on the net. Once they were on that network they were able to access other military bases and civilian agencies such as Nasa and the Energy and Transportation Departments, according to BBC reports. Many computers had passwords such as the user's name or "password". ForensicTec president Brett O'Keefe told the Washington Post: "We were shocked and almost scared by how easy it was to get in. It's like coming across the Pentagon and seeing a door open with no one guarding it." Army spokesman Colonel Ted Dmuchowski confirmed that a network had been breached but claimed that the material was unclassified and the breach "did not affect national security". He is quoted by the BBC as saying: "On a scale of one to 10, this is a 2.5. The intrusion occurred on the unclassified network of an army tactical unit in its garrison location - this was not the Pentagon."