Security Breach at Stewart Airport

The breach involved a computer server being left open to the public.

According to the Times Herald Record, Chris Vickery who is the lead security researcher for the MacKeeper Research Center, took about a week to download the files necessary to access server at Stewart airport. The server had all kinds of personal information and classified security information.

Some of the files that were accessed included the usernames and passwords for airport operations as well as a list of Stewart Airport workers with their home phone numbers, Social Security numbers and other personal information.

Breaching the airport security wasn't hard; Vickery says anyone with computer skills could have gotten the data with the same tools he used.

He also said that, "If you have any sort of background in computing, it is trivially easy."

Vickery told the Record that the open port that allowed access to the server has since been closed down. He said that it was closed while he was speaking on the phone last week with the airport's operators about the server being accessible.

Vickery detailed how he accessed the data and contacted the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and the company and subcontractor tasked with handling Stewart International Airport in an article on mackeeper.com.