FEMA Phones Hacked

The Homeland Security Department telephone system was a victim to a hacker this past weekend. The hacker was able to spend $12,000 for calls to the Middle East and Asia.

According to FEMA spokesman Tom Olshanski the hacker made more than 400 calls using a Federal Emergency Management Agency voicemail system in Emmitsburg, Md. during the weekend. In 2003 the agency put out a warning that this was a vulnerability within the system. The recently installed voicemail system is a PBX (Private Branch Exchange). It is the traditional way for corporations and government offices use to comminicate. Because of its vulnerabilites more companies are moving to a higher tech method called Voice Over Internet Telephony. The weekend hacker was old school using methods that have been around for 10 to 15 years to attack the system. As reported in a Yahoo news article:

"In this case it's sort of embarrassing that it happened to FEMA themselves — FEMA being a child of DHS, with calls going to the Middle East," Johnson said.

Most of the 400 calls were as short as 3 minutes although some lasted for 10 minutes. They were placed to several countries including Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, India and Yemen. The calls were halted after Sprint caught onto the scheme. FEMA is now investigating where the calls went.