March 11, 2010, - 11:01 am
Was This TSA Guy Just Disgruntled . . . or Working for Islamic Terrorists?
Was TSA employee Douglas James Duchak working for Islamic terrorists?
It’s a major national security breach. But it’s getting almost no media coverage outside of Colorado and a few techie sites.
In October, Duchak, a TSA analyst in Colorado Springs, sent a virus into federal government computers to disable the databases containing information about terrorists–specifically, the no-fly list–and U. S. Marshal warrants. Why did he do this? Well, a week earlier, he learned his TSA employment was being terminated. But that could be a red herring. You don’t try to disable these systems and risk your freedom, just because you lost your job. Or would you?
It sounds like Duchak may have been working for someone. If so, the question is, for whom? Obviously the feds believe some sort of terrorist group may be involved or the FBI–the lead agency investigating terrorism–wouldn’t be on the case. And, it sounds to me, like Duchak was trying to allow a terrorist or terrorists for whom there may have been an arrest warrant, to fly into the U.S. and needed to do it before his job ended. If so, who was the terrorist(s)? And if there wasn’t one, why else would Duchak specifically target those databases and risk going to jail? He was surely going to be caught, as he was. Is it really possible that he was just a disgruntled employee who was notified a week earlier that his job would be terminated, and decided to sabotage the system? I don’t think so.
Earlier this week, Duchak was indicted. Read the indictment here. The indictment is brief and says very little. And I believe there’s a lot to this story we’re not being told.
More:
A former employee of the Transportation Security Administration has been indicted by the Denver federal grand jury for attempting to sabotage TSA computers that enable TSA airport personnel to spot potential terrorists before they board airliners.
Douglas James Duchak, 46, of Colorado Springs, worked for the TSA from August 2004 through October 2009.
According to the indictment, Duchak sent a code or virus into computers at the TSA’s Colorado Springs Operations Center in the attempt to disable the TSA computer system, which receives information from the government’s Terrorist Screening Database and the U.S. Marshal’s Service Warrant Information Network.
The indictment said that the TSA computer system is critical in “vetting of individuals” who are attempting to gain access to “secure areas of the nation’s transportation system.”
The indictment said that Duchak’s duties included updating the databases with new information.
He allegedly inserted a virus programmed to spread on a specific date to destroy the computer system.
However, TSA technicians spotted the virus and were able to neutralize it before it could damage the system, said Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Denver.
What do you think–just a disgruntled employee or something more sinister?
Tags: Colorado, Colorado Springs, computers, databases, Douglas James Duchak, no-fly list, terrorism database, Terrorist Screening Database, Transportation Security Administration, TSA, U.S. Marshal's Service Warrant Information Network, virus
Another strange aspect is that the virus (to destroy the files) was set to activate at a later date. It seems to me that if the person were enraged about being terminated, he’d have immediately destroyed the files. It would have been an impulsive act, not something carefully thought out, planned in advance…Was he really so stupid as to think that he’d not get caught?
J.S. on March 11, 2010 at 11:12 am