A recent voicemail upgrade to the FEMA telephone network came with a surprise bill – 12,000 dollars worth of calls to the Middle East and Asia. FEMA, or what the non-acronym inclined would call the Federal Emergency Management Agency, falls within the umbrella of Homeland Security.

• FEMA budget for 2008? 5.8 billion dollars
• 400 International Calls? $12,000.00
• Hacking the Department of Homeland Security? Priceless

Using a 15 year old technique (that they wouldn’t describe in detail), the hacker made 400 calls were made to countries such as Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, India and Yemen. Even better, the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA didn’t notice the charges or calls. Sprint did. Sprint noticed the long distance charges and stopped future calls.

We don’t know what surprises us more… the fact that Homeland Security was hacked using methods more than a decade old, the fact that the government didn’t notice $12,000.00 in unauthorized calls, or the fact that the Department of Homeland Security didn’t notice calls to Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia made from within it’s own department.

Assuming we don’t get audited in the very near future, we look forward to our next Podcast. Oh wait. Patrick, is that an IRS van headed your way?

Here’s more from the traditional press:

• Business Week
• Yahoo! News