Nevada governor accidentally posts Outlook password
If you ever wanted to be Nevada's governor for a day, it doesn't seem to be that hard.
In what could be a whopping security hole, Nevada has posted the password to the gubernatorial e-mail account on its official state Web site. It appears in a Microsoft Word file giving step-by-step instructions on how aides should send out the governor's weekly e-mail updates, which has, as a second file shows, 13,105 subscribers.
Excerpt from Nevada's state government Web site: How to be the governor for a day. And we're sure he replies to all of his own e-mail as well.
The Outlook username is, by the way, "governor" and the password is "kennyc". We should note at this point that the former Nevada governor, a Republican, is Kenny C. Guinn, which hardly says much about password security.
The current governor of Nevada is Jim A. Gibbons, also a Republican, happens to be widely disliked. His approval rating of 28 percent accomplishes the rare feat of being below President Bush's. It doesn't help, we assume, that Gibbons is facing an FBI probe over possible illegal gifts.
For the record, we didn't try sending fake gubernatorial mail with the "kennyc" password (or "jimmya" either), so we don't know whether it actually works or whether it's been changed for the new administration. Although the listserv's administration interface is publicly-accessible, there might be a firewall that limits connections to the Outlook server, for all we know. Because other accidentally-public documents on the NV.gov site continue to list the "kennyc" password, though, we wouldn't be surprised if the password remained the same.
We did, however, briefly consider that a message titled "Governor_eAlert_07.19.07: Why I am resigning in disgrace" or "Governor_eAlert_07.20.07: Why I am switching to the Libertarian Party," would be more interesting than the run-of-the-mill actual titles like Economic Development Funding Paying Immediate and Long-term Benefits.
Other documents on the Nevada Web site list internal phone numbers and, oddly, because we didn't think anyone in this biz used fax machines anymore, a "PRESS RELEASE BLAST FAX LIST" for our colleagues in the Nevada media.
We did try calling and e-mailing the press office on Friday morning but didn't hear back by our publication deadline. Maybe we would have had better luck if the e-mail inquiry had come from the governor himself...
Note: Reporters are, of course, only as good as their sources. A tip of the hat this time to a fellow who goes by the name of Don Malaria.
Update as of 11am: The offending Web site has been taken offline, although the password files are still available through Google's cache. We did speak to Melissa Subbotin, the governor's press aide, but never got a response in terms of how this happened.
Declan McCullagh, CNET News' chief political correspondent, chronicles the intersection of politics and technology. He has covered politics, technology, and Washington, D.C., for more than a decade, which has turned him into an iconoclast and a skeptic of anyone who says, "We oughta have a new federal law against this." E-mail Declan.
There is no feelings needed.....
Your analyzing is simply super....
Nice info...
Thanks,
=============
AleX
Nevada Treatment Centers
-
by smithsand
August 23, 2008 9:55 AM PDT
- Nevada is governed under its original constitution, which was adopted in 1864. The state legislature consists of the Senate of 21 members elected for four-year terms and the Assembly of 42 members elected for two years. The legislature convenes in January of odd-numbered years.
-
Reply to this comment
-
(4 Comments)-------------
smithsan
Nevada Drug Addiction