[the-facts-machine] Bard Down Due to "Denial of Service" Attacks Aimed at Library of Congress

  • From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <the-facts-machine@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2016 21:41:09 -0400

BlankThe following letter explains the problem with the Bard site:

Library of Congress wracked by DNS attack

Cybersecurity

* By Adam Mazmanian
* Jul 18, 2016

Shutterstock image: Library of Congress interior.

The Library of Congress was the target of a denial-of-service attack that
has knocked out Congress.gov and the U.S. Copyright Office website, and
caused outages at other sites hosted by the library. 

Library spokesperson Gayle Osterberg told FCW that the DNS attack was
launched July 17 and continues to affect library operations, including
internal websites and employee email. 

"The Library is working to maintain access to its online services while
ensuring security," Osterberg said.

There was no information on the source of the attack, which comes just a few
days after Carla Hayden was confirmed by the Senate as the Librarian of
Congress. In an April confirmation hearing, Hayden pledged to! modernize
<https://fcw.com/articles/2016/04/20/hayden-loc-confirmation.aspx>
 library
systems.

Cybersecurity at the Library has come under fire
<https://fcw.com/articles/2015/03/31/gao-library-of-congress.aspx>
 from
watchdogs before. The Government Accountability Office issued a limited
distribution report in June 2015 identifying a host of technical weaknesses
in the Library's information security posture, along with 74 suggestions for
remediation. GAO identified weaknesses in patch management, boundary
protection, configuration management and other areas. The report is not
public, but was mentioned in a footnote in Dec. 2015 testimony
<http://www.gao.gov/assets/680/673955.pdf>
 from a GAO IT specialist.

Library CIO Bernard A. Barton, who took over
<https://fcw.com/articles/2015/09/15/cio-upgrades.aspx>
 the top tech job in
September 2015, said that implementing fixes to aging IT systems and
problems identified by the GAO would be a big part of his job.

Library of Congress wracked by DNS attack, includes the BARD service
https://t.co/fdqRT76DNs
 Shannon Reece 
mamashazz@xxxxxxxxxx

GIF image

Other related posts:

  • » [the-facts-machine] Bard Down Due to "Denial of Service" Attacks Aimed at Library of Congress - Steve