PDF mistake exposes classified data

Poor PDF security has revealed classified information about the killing in Iraq of Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari.

A report into the affair by Multi-National Corps-Iraq was posted on the internet in PDF format with classified information blacked out. But the report was pulled after it was found that the censored sections could be read by a simple cut and paste.

"It's a bit of a faux pas," said Neil Barrett, professor of computer science at Cranfield University.

"They would have been better off posting a scanned document with the sections blacked out. It would mean a large file download but a PDF is not that tiny either."

This is not the first time the US military has made mistakes with technology. British hacker Gary McKinnon cracked computers at military bases from Pearl Harbour to Connecticut three years ago after finding out that the systems were running NT4, which is no longer supported.

See also:

IBM tool offers 'anonymous' data analysis

DB2 Anonymous Resolution cuts back on unintentional information disclosure  25 May 2005

Adobe launches PDF reader for Linux

Version 7.0 supports Novell SuSE and Red Hat  13 Apr 2005

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