Hey guys, I'm working on a school project for an IT security class and I've decided to include the 07 McLaren/Ferrari spygate scandal. I was just wondering if anyone knew what, if any, security measures Ferrari, or any other team for that matter, might have had in place or put in place to avoid employees from copying their information, like Nigel Stepney did. I know certain companies restrict USB drives and such from being used on their company computers and I find it amazing that any employee of any racing team would have not only that much information on their personal laptop, but that Mr Stepney could have copied or printed the information in the first place with raising a red flag with their security department. Would anyone have any idea about this? I know it's an old story but I was hoping someone might have an old link or something that I can use. Thanks!
Interesting project!..... As a computer security geek myself my 02c; - Nigel was an *extremely* trusted member of the team - I suspect analogous to a sys-admin going bad!...... Any company must trust it's admins (top engineers in this case) as they need to work with high privileges to do their jobs - Think configuring firewalls etc - If I wanted to open a port for example I could, and it's doubtful anyone would notice until the next audit. [If then! ] - Outside of a few military installations, printer usage is "free" - Anyone can print anything anytime. Given that he apparently handed the hard copy over I suspect he simply printed it late one night when he was pissed off with the world...... Cheers, Ian
Yup, people think waaaayyyy too highly of F1, its just like any other company. They arnt monitoring every single time an USB stick is used, simply not possible.
There were a couple of material transfers; first was hard copies of info about the illegal flexi-floor and one other item, but a few weeks later he gave Coughlan a burned CD with 700+ pages worth of data, drawings, etc. It was that CD which gave up the jig; Stepney either printed off the material and sent his wife to have copies made, or sent his wife to have the files on the CD printed at the copy shop (I don't recall the detail now, but I know the bulk of the data stolen by Stepney was provided to Coughlan on CD)
Just to note: At no point was Ferrari's floor deemed illegal, it passed the original official FIA floor flexing test and then when the test was made tougher, Ferrari made changes to the floor to ensure they would safely pass that test as well. Were it deemed illegal, Ferrari would have faced punishment for using it! (If I'm wrong, please provide details of Ferrari's punishment to counter this statement). The flexi floor may not have been in keeping with the spirit of the rules but it passed all the necessary tests and inspections mandated by the FIA in order to be legal to race (a bit like the flexi-front wings we've seen in recent seasons from certain teams). And to save everyone else having to reply to this: "Oh no!, not this s**t again!" "Oh tell Me he did not go there again!" "Oh yes he did!" "Everyone knows that floor was illegal!" "Ferrari always cheat!" "No they didn't, they just pushed the boundaries of the rules!" "Just let it go for crying out loud!" "Boring!, move on!, nothing to see here!" Etc., etc.,etc. As for Stepney and Coughlan, as far as I'm concerned the pair of them should have been banned from any motorsport activity for life!
Who's got the popcorn ? The only thing that was clear is that Mclaren = evil. Ferrari = good. Everything else is just filling in blanks. BTW; The security is tighter now. I cant tell you how or you may have an accident. Sorry.
And not to forget, in order to save his arse with the FIA, Alonso admitted he and Pedro knew the information was obtained "illegally", and that they tried to use it to their advantage.
I'm not so sure - I do know it wasn't Stepney who took it to the copy shop though - It was Coughlans wife, wearing a Mclaren jacket (!) who gave hard copies to the Ferrari-fan copier-operator with instructions to put it *onto* a CD - If it was already on one, why bother? Cheers, Ian
Lol, I'm not concerned with who was or is evil or not at the time, it's all water under the bridge and still happens all the time. I just wonder if anyone has any idea what they might be doing IT securitywise to prevent something like this from happening again. From what I understand, Stepney just printed all the stuff out. I'd think someone at Ferrari IT security would have noticed that, and considering that Nigel had already expressed displeasure with the team, I'd find him printing out that much information highly suspect. Just sayin.....
+1 Why the devil should they?...... IT security (IME) is (pretty much) fully occupied keeping the firewalls, DMZ(s), anti-crap-ware, etc etc stuff going - Particularly at a "high profile" target such as Ferrari - I guess they're (almost ) as attractive to the "bad guys" as any .gov or .mil target! Doesn't really matter if it was hard copy, a burnt CD or a USB stick, the problem is "trust" - As noted above, outside of a few mil sites, printer usage (and CD burner access and USB sticks) is only controlled by the "IT security policy" that every employee signs...... Cheers, Ian
Ian, That's my point exactly, McLaren found out the hard way that there were about 100 Million reasons to care! I'm sure things aren't the same way security wise as they were in 07 and that's what I'm curious about. If anyone might have an idea, I accept PM's as well.... I'd actually like to base the majority of the class project on F1 but I don't have enough info about the IT security end of it at this point which is why I'm fishing for information.
