Because most of Washington, DC, has emptied out in anticipation of the upcoming long weekend for the Fourth of July, the nefarious Captain Obvious took the opportunity to hack into the DDTC website and leave this important reminder to exporters:

Reminder: Individuals and companies transporting ITAR controlled goods are responsible for meeting the requirements of both the United States and the country/ies to which they will be transporting goods. The Department of State’s website on travel (www.travel.state.gov) and the country’s customs office should be consulted to ensure compliance.

The exclamation point in a warning triangle that the hacker put to the left of this important announcement was a particularly malicious touch.

This just goes to show that no one — even the Department of State and its various bureaus — is safe these days from the scourge of hacking. Even this blog had to fend off an attack earlier today from Captain Obvious who attempted, unsuccessfully, to put a reminder on our home page that all exporters, sooner or later, will have to breathe in order to continue exporting.

In case someone at DDTC catches this and removes the hacker’s handiwork, a screen grab of the hacked page can be found here.

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Copyright © 2011 Clif Burns. All Rights Reserved.
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