Russian government email servers hacked

So we thought this was only an Amerikan Capitalist problem. The Moscow Times tells us otherwise.:

"On Monday it turned out that the Federal Service of Protection (FSO) is not that good at protecting its own privacy. Yesterday internet forums were bubbling with information about a hack into the FSO internal email system.

The attack was aimed at an email server of one of the services’ departments, the FSO’s official representatives confirmed to Vedomosti, but no important state information was stored there. At the moment the organisation is investigating the circumstances of the break in and the security of all the servers.

After the attack any internet user could follow the link distributed by the hackers in online forums, type in a simple username and password and access the web-interface of Dozor, the software used for monitoring email traffic, checking the messages for breaches of email use policy, and then archiving the emails.



A hole in security

There had been information about a glitch in the security system, but it got out only now, according to a manager of a company that deals in internet security.

The unknown hackers advertised the glitch as access to the email archives of the system for investigative actions (SORM) – a technical complex that allows access to Russian citizens’ telephone conversations, as well as sms and other electronic communication.

However, experts say that it was misleading. It was not SORM, but the system which monitors internal email. Even so, it's still a very serious issue, the head of Virus research and analytics centre of the Russian branch of ESET Alexander Matrosov told Vedomosti."

No one is safe.