In demonstrating how easy it was to penetrate sensitive military computers, four-month-old ForensicTec Solutions may have violated federal law prohibiting unauthorized intrusions. The FBI raided the offices of the San Diego firm over the weekend.
ForensicTec said it identified 34 military sites where they said network security was easily compromised, including Army computers at Fort Hood, Texas; NASA's Ames Research Center in Northern California and Navy facilities in Maryland and Virginia.
The company reportedly used free software to identify vulnerable computers and then peruse hundreds of confidential files containing military procedures, e-mail, Social Security numbers and financial data.
The company's president, Brett O'Keeffe, told The Washington Post that its goal was to call attention to the need for better security and "get some positive exposure" for the fledgling firm.
Hours after the claims were reported in a front-page article Friday in The Post, the FBI began searching the firm's offices.
A spokesman for ForensicTec did not immediately return a phone call Thursday from The Associated Press.
The FBI confirmed the search, but a spokesman declined to discuss the case. Army investigators also joined the investigation.
"Regardless of the stated intent, unauthorized entry into Army computer systems is a federal offense," said Marc Raimondi, spokesman for the Army Criminal Investigation Command in Virginia. "If there is an intrusion and we are notified or we detect it, then we lauch a criminal investigation into the act."
Even though the raid may look to some like retribution, Mark Rasch, the Justice Department's former top computer crimes prosecutor, said ForensicTec stepped over the line.
"Just because you can break into Army computers doesn't mean you either should do it, have a right to do it, or can avoid criminal liability for doing it," Rasch said.
ForensicTec should have gotten permission from the Army before probing their computers, Rasch said.
"They thought they were doing a public service," Rasch said. "What they did, at best, was exercised a monumental lack of judgment."
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