Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony
Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony
Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony
RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony
Waiting for SIPO Anthony
Public Inquiry >>
Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
Trump hosts former head of Syrian Al-Qaeda Al-Jolani to the White House Tue Nov 11, 2025 22:01 | imc
Rip The Chicken Tree - 1800s - 2025 Tue Nov 04, 2025 03:40 | Mark
Study of 1.7 Million Children: Heart Damage Only Found in Covid-Vaxxed Kids Sat Nov 01, 2025 00:44 | imc
The Golden Haro Fri Oct 31, 2025 12:39 | Paul Ryan
Top Scientists Confirm Covid Shots Cause Heart Attacks in Children Sun Oct 05, 2025 21:31 | imc
Human Rights in Ireland >>
The Best of the Sceptic 2025 Fri Jan 02, 2026 07:00 | Richard Eldred
In this Special Episode of the Sceptic, we look back at some 2025 highlights: tackling Labour's failings on the grooming gangs, the lies of Blairism, the return of Englishness. Plus: Peter Hitchens on Lucy Letby.
The post The Best of the Sceptic 2025 appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
News Round-Up Fri Jan 02, 2026 00:44 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Sadiq Khan?s ?Disappointing? Fireworks Slammed for Shoehorning in Advert for Wicked Thu Jan 01, 2026 19:14 | Will Jones
Sir Sadiq Khan's New Year firework celebrations in London were slammed as "disappointing" after shoehorning in an advert for the new Wicked movie.
The post Sadiq Khan’s “Disappointing” Fireworks Slammed for Shoehorning in Advert for Wicked appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
National Trust Bans Volunteer After He Pointed Out Spelling Mistakes Thu Jan 01, 2026 18:00 | Will Jones
The?National Trust?blacklisted a volunteer, banning him from volunteering, after he pointed out spelling mistakes on its website.
The post National Trust Bans Volunteer After He Pointed Out Spelling Mistakes appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The Marvellous Miseries of Multiculturalism Thu Jan 01, 2026 15:50 | Dr James Allan
After the Bondi Beach atrocity, Professor James Allan looks ahead to 2026 with a heavy heart. Australia, he says, urgently needs to reassess its commitment to multiculturalism. But no one is willing to do what it takes.
The post The Marvellous Miseries of Multiculturalism appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en
Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en
The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en
Voltaire Network >>
dublin |
sci-tech |
news report
Thursday October 02, 2003 04:15
by hj - ex-tp
printable version
Digg this
del.icio.us
Furl
Reddit
Technorati
Facebook
Gab
Twitter
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (3 of 3)
Jump To Comment: 3 2 1to be more accurate, hacking is modifying a program's code without source-code/whatever from whoever wrote it.
"Hacking is when a programmer modifies programme code "
Unless you get paid for it, in which case it's called "software engineering"
I don't have access to the online paper so this is just from memory.
The PBX system (a private telephone network, the telephone equivalent of a local area network) of the Department of Social and Family Affairs was "compromised" for a couple of months over the summer. It was their account manager in Eircom who spotted the anomalous usage patterns. Many of the phone calls were made over weekends and many were made to countries in Africa and East Asia. Apparently, the in-house bean-counters didn't pay too much attention to the figures even though the figure for July was over 200,000 when it would normally be around 120,000. IIRC, a facility for engineers to access the system remotely for maintenace and diagnostics was exploited. The fraud squad weren't too optimistic about succesfully tracking down and prosecuting the culprits as in the majority of such cases, the attack comes from outside the country.
Terminology: The Irish Times described the system as being "hacked". Hacking is when a programmer modifies programme code and a hacker would be someone who gets a buzz from learning about programming and computer systems and putting that knowledge to creative use.
Cracking is when she bypasses security to gain unauthorised access to a computer system. Phreaking is the name for the same activity applied to telephone networks.