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Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach

nytimes.com

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Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach

#2
The top ministers in charge of this scandal are impeached by the opposition. Our prime minister Stefan Löven is having a press conference tomorrow at 10am (+1gmt) and possibly the entire party will resign to hand over power to the Moderates (right wing) because of this.

Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach

#3
post #2

The top ministers in charge of this scandal are impeached by the opposition. Our prime minister Stefan Löven is having a press conference tomorrow at 10am (+1gmt) and possibly the entire party will resign to hand over power to the Moderates (right wing) because of this.

I guess the most likely scenario is that the current PM tomorrow at 10am will announce that the current goverment has resigned and that it's then upon the Speaker of the Riksdag/Parliament to try to form a new government that will meet the acceptance of the parliament.

One note: the "right-wing" alliance of four parties who was behind this impeachment notice (I should use more quotes, they really are centrist as a group) parties earlier today announced that they would not seek to form an independent government with the help of Sverigedemokraterna, the anti-immigration and rightwing-ish party currently polling at around 20-25%.

Instead they would seek to form a new government together with the social democratic party they just claimed was not trustworthy.

Yes, it's odd.

(On the whole though I'm happy that we can have a political crisis like this without the country falling apart. Everyone is behaving perfectly orderly.)

Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach

#6

I guess the old saying "Nobody got fired for buying [from] IBM." isn't true any longer?

Well, one person was already fired for buying this kind of IBM, but that was just the director general of the authority that leaked the data. The thing most swedes have an issue with is that the government tried to silence the leak for like two years (people really dislike being actively lied to). If they had owned it, I don't think it would have been such a big deal.

Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach

#8
Reading the article, I am reminded of the story of the famous Swedish ship, the Vasa [0], which sank in the XVII century because, ultimately, no one wanted to say no to the king: when the engineers saw there was a massive problem ahead ("your boat don't float"), the management didn't dare tell the King, leading to catastrophe[1].

It's a good lesson, I hope we learn it someday.

[0] : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship)

[1] : I'll admit it is a fantastic chance for historians and tourists alike: The wreck, pulled from the waters perfectly preserved, is a must-see in Stockholm

Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach

#9
post #2

The top ministers in charge of this scandal are impeached by the opposition. Our prime minister Stefan Löven is having a press conference tomorrow at 10am (+1gmt) and possibly the entire party will resign to hand over power to the Moderates (right wing) because of this.

Literally handing over power to the conservative block is hardly on the table. As one (probably unlikely) alternative the whole government might be dissolved, but that would pass the task of forming a new one back to the parliament.

Some domestic commentary on the options (poorly) translated by Google: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pr...

Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach

#10
post #6

I guess the old saying "Nobody got fired for buying [from] IBM." isn't true any longer?

Well, one person was already fired for buying this kind of IBM, but that was just the director general of the authority that leaked the data. The thing most swedes have an issue with is that the government tried to silence the leak for like two years (people really dislike being actively lied to). If they had owned it, I don't think it would have been such a big deal.

It is an old truism that it is the cover-up that gets you. I.e. when we look at scandals, the thing that people generally get in trouble for was part of the cover up rather than the original scandal.

Given that this is common knowledge, why do cover-ups keep happening? Theory (A): the failed cover-ups we hear about are only a tiny fraction of the successful ones, so on average it is rational to try and cover things up. (B) cover-ups are not rational on average, but some bias in human psychology makes people do it anyway.

I am inclined to believe both, even though they contradict each other. I am also working on a (C) involving multiple parties drawing each other into the cover up in such a way that the person who takes the fall is not the principal who started the trouble.

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