If he is truly a security professional then you think that after doing this he would at least get rid of the evidence by destroying the laptop, and dumping in some landfill. Then at least when they found it, it would be inadmissable as evidence as they could not prove that he was the last to use it.

Just waiting for someone to do that to Gordon, and Jacquie

But it looks like McIntosh got one over on the Windows systems.

You're waiting for someone to dump Gordon and Jacquie onto a landfill? A little bit harsh I feel but can see where you are coming from...

TFA has it slightly confused, but it's clear that he didn't hack his way in, he just logged in using a colleague's credentials of some kind that he had learned while he was employed to work on those systems and had authorised access.

>"The prosecutor alleged he used a colleague's IP -- a "unique numerical code'' -- to access a "virtual private network connection'' with the government system and hacked in."

See, that's nonsense: VPN logins are not tied to the employee's home IP address, since they're generally dynamically provided by the ISP and change frequently; every VPN I've seen you log in with a username and password, and sometimes some form of 2-factor device like a SecurID token. (And please, nobody mention IP spoofing unless you understand enough networking tech to explain to me how you propose to ship L2 ARP packets across the internet backbone).

So the offence is seriously misdescribed (and most likely misunderstood too) by the prosecution, and it seems certain to me he just nicked a workmate's login.

That one of the most damaging attacks should come from a Mac (Intosh).. After all that shouting about how secure they are.

"took out IT systems at the Northern Territories' Health Department, Royal Darwin Hospital" etc. etc.

So they won't be giving him a Darwin Award then?

Sorry.

"You're waiting for someone to dump Gordon and Jacquie onto a landfill? A little bit harsh I feel but can see where you are coming from..."

He can't do that - they count as "hazardous waste" and require a special disposable procedure.....

Reason enough to refuse to have a McIntosh in the office.........

Restore

The low cost of restoring from tape is only available if you have a tape and this being NT... :-)

In Soviet Russia, Macintosh hacks YOU!!!

It is the first time I see a Mac hacking systems. Was this a PowerPC Mac, or one of the evil Intel ones? ;)

Sure, restoration of multiple complex systems is going to be a pain... but what they're describing is as if they have to rebuild the lot.

Would be *really* surprised if that's the case. (not impossible, but unlikely)

So , is this what happens when a Mac tries to work in a Win2K environment many deletions and little work done ?

You don't sack a IT worker for serious breaches of security and not change the access controls do you?

Well if you don't work in Britain that is.

I'd say he's done them a favour, as the system needed cobbing a long time ago, by the sound of it. The cost of repairing a serious crappy set up shouldn't be mentioned in court except in his defence.

It wouldn't surprise me he'd only taken a stand and whistle blowing might well have been the reason he was sacked in the first place.

Always remember that when governments and politics are involved, the little guy is usually the goodie.

A dingo took my network!

IT: Where popping a tape into a drive will cost you $100,000, and pushing a button to enforce a mass password reset is an extra $150,000.