[LINK] PM's staff shifts the Wikipedia blame

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Howard Lowndes wrote:
> It'll be interesting to see if Macquarie Telecom fess up, contradict, or 
> stay schtum.

Fess up to what?

a)that they let their servers be compromised
b)that they were lax and their servers weren't upto date (or they forgot about 
that server - when I switched ISPs this was a problem I faced)
c)that their servers are correctly configured and they have been providing
reliable services to the Federal Government for x number of years.

Given that one of the sites is an ACMA site, I guess the issue will be
investigated thoroughly.

M

> 
> Rick Welykochy wrote:
>> <http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/pms-staff-shifts-the-wikipedia-blame/2007/08/29/1188067191576.html> 
>>
>>
>> or
>>
>> <http://tinyurl.com/2fxrek>
>>
>>     THE Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet has blamed a mistake 
>> by its
>>     internet service provider for embarrassing reports its staff were 
>> editing
>>     politically sensitive Wikipedia entries.
>>
>>     Last week the Herald reported that staff in the department had 
>> been editing
>>     Wikipedia entries, including one on the Treasurer, Peter Costello, 
>> to remove
>>     details that might be damaging to the Government.
>>
>>     But Dr Peter Shergold, the department's secretary, said the 
>> internet address
>>     of the computer used to edit the entries was not that of the 
>> department as
>>     it had been "allocated to another customer in early 2005 by our 
>> internet service
>>     provider", Macquarie Telecom. His deputy, Dr Louise Morauta, said 
>> Macquarie
>>     Telecom had "made it appear" it was the department's address "when 
>> in fact it was not".
>>
>> Well, that's a hard one to swallow, Dr Shergold.
>>
>> One of the IP addresses in question is 210.193.176.115.
>>
>> <http://www.ip2location.com/demo.aspx> reports the following:
>>
>> 210.193.176.150
>> 210.193.176.115
>> 210.193.176.100
>> 210.193.176.80
>> 210.193.176.60
>> 210.193.176.45
>> 210.193.176.30
>> 210.193.176.19
>>
>> are ALL "Dept of Prime Minister and Cabinet", Canberra.
>>
>> If the information regarding these IP addresses is incorrect and actually
>> two years out of date as claimed by Shergold, then Macquarie Telecom is
>> looking pretty incompetent.
>>
>> But wait, that last address I checked is the PM's own website,
>> http://pm.gov.au/
>>
>> Anyone else smell a rat? Does this information belie Shergold's claims?
>>
>>
>> cheers
>> rickw
>>
>>
> 


-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
http://www.ramin.com.au
Phone: (+61)0414 869202