Another IBM stuff up... anyone remember the Australian Census screw up? http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-25/ibm-to-pay-over-$30m-i...
Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach
11–20 of 140 posts
Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 u…
> Given that this is common knowledge, why do cover-ups keep happening?
Because the cover-ups work, and only happen when the people involved are deeply involved in the original scandal in a way which would get them in more trouble if it came out than their involvement in the cover up would. The fact that often their role in the cover up does get them in trouble doesn't change that the cover-up is usually successful, even in those cases, at preventing their role in encouraging (or more) the original wrongdoing from coming to light.
Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 u…
I can see the psychological angle: "Why fess up to it today when I can do it tomorrow?". Delaying the pain until someone realizes the window in which they could have made it public is now over and they have to continue covering it up.
Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach
#14The 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 gr…
It is more than odd and it will only serve to steer more voters to the Sweden Democrats (SD).
For those not totally in tune with Swedish politics, the current government (S - social democrats - and MP - Miljöpartiet, 'environmental party') more or less stumbled right out of the starting blocks as the opposition voted down their budget. This would normally have ended with a resignation followed by a new formation attempt or new elections but this did not happen, the reason being the 'threat' of SD getting in a position of power. At that moment SD had the support of around 13% of those Swedish voters who actually turned up to vote. The opposition - which had just voted down the budget - now supported S and MP staying in power, enacting the budget proposed by the opposition. This became known as the 'decemberöverenskommelse' (December agreement).
Of course the ruling parties - S and MP, both left-wing - did not try to implement the budget as the opposition intended, they more or less went their own way. Already marred by a few scandals - e.g. the forced resignation of the minister for housing (MP) when his rather tight connections to the Erdogan-regime in Turkey, his mingling with the 'Grey Wolves' [1] (a Turkish ultra-nationalist organisation) and his connections to the Muslim Brotherhood became clear even to those who tried their best not to notice - the government stumbled along without any clear plan or direction. While they produce a lot of hollow rhetoric about their 'ethic values' (the Swedish concept of "värdegrund", [2]) and boast about being the "first feminist government" they have not acted decisively on real issues cropping up in the country, often going so far as to deny the issues. This has led to comparisons with the infamous Iraqi minister for Information, Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf [3] who was known for stating things as he wanted them to be instead of the way they were, even when confronted with irrefutable evidence.
All this served to push more and more people towards SD, the social stigma of being associated with this party notwithstanding. If the "opposition" - quotes around the word as it is no longer clear whether the parties of the "alliance" can be considered to oppose the current government as they did support its rule under the December agreement - does go along with S and possibly MP (which by now has lost enough support to end up under the 4% threshold) they will lose even more voters to SD. In the latest poll by Sentio the combined support for the current government parties was 26.2% while SD got 26.8%, in other words there is more support for SD in Sweden than for the coalition of S and MP. The trend has been for support for SD to roughly double every four years (the election period in Sweden), from 3% to 6% to 13% to now 26%. It is unlikely for this trend to hold but it is certainly possible for them to end up with about a third of the votes in the country. Disenfranchising these voters will have a disastrous effect on the trust in politics and politicians in Sweden, a trust which is already at bottom level.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_Wolves_(organization)
Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach
#15Another IBM stuff up... anyone remember the Australian Census screw up? http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-25/ibm-to-pay-over-$30m-i...
I don't really think we can blame IBM on this one. From what I can tell, they followed the specs.
The problem was that the authority overseeing lots of very sensitive data forgot to specify that the individuals working on this project would need be a) swedish citizens, b) go through government level security clearance).
So then when IBM came back with, "hey guys, here's our list of a dozen+ guys in Serbia who need read/write access to all of the data", the swedish agencency felt like they had no choice to grant access to extra-nationals, even though it was clearly against the law.
Note: Serbia happens to be quite closely related to Russia, politically speaking. One of the admins who were granted read/write access had a ten year history in the serbian army...
Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach
#16Another IBM stuff up... anyone remember the Australian Census screw up? http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-25/ibm-to-pay-over-$30m-i...
I don't know how much blame you can put on IBM here.
- The Transport Agency decided to outsource operations, and IBM won the contract (April 2015)
- The following month, the head of the agency decided to ignore certain laws about privacy, secrecy, etc., as well as the agency's own requirements about information security
- The Swedish Security Service, Säpo (basically our FBI), immediately got wind of this and started investigating, ultimately recommending - in November 2015 - to put an immediate halt to the outsourcing
- The Transport Agency decided to ignore the advice of Säpo and handed over operations to IBM in December 2015
Here's a good timeline: http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/detta-vet-vi-om-transportst...
Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach
#17Another IBM stuff up... anyone remember the Australian Census screw up? http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-25/ibm-to-pay-over-$30m-i...
I don't really think we can blame IBM on this one. From what I can tell, they followed the specs. The problem was that the authority overseeing lots of very sensitive data forgot to specify that the individuals working on this project would need be a) swedish citizens, b) go through government level security clearance). So then when IBM came back with, "hey guys, here's our list of a dozen+ guys in Serbia who need re…
Where did you get the information about dozen+ guys in _Serbia_? The article does not mention Serbia, but mentions Check Republic...
Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't really think we can blame IBM on this one. From what I can tell, they followed the specs. The problem was that the authority overseeing lots of very sensitive data forgot to specify that the individuals working on this project would need be a) swedish citizens, b) go through government level security clearance). So then when IBM came back with, "hey guys, here's our list of a dozen+ guys in Serbia who need re…
Where did you get the information about dozen+ guys in _Serbia_? The article does not mention Serbia, but mentions Check Republic...
Serbia (not necessarily dozen guys, though) has been mentioned in a lot of news articles in the Swedish press. It's now even on the Wikipedia page in the Swedish Wikipedia.
Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't really think we can blame IBM on this one. From what I can tell, they followed the specs. The problem was that the authority overseeing lots of very sensitive data forgot to specify that the individuals working on this project would need be a) swedish citizens, b) go through government level security clearance). So then when IBM came back with, "hey guys, here's our list of a dozen+ guys in Serbia who need re…
Where did you get the information about dozen+ guys in _Serbia_? The article does not mention Serbia, but mentions Check Republic...
It was reported by DN who received a copy of the Swedish Security Service's (Säpo) preliminary investigation [0]. My translation of a few paragraphs from the article:
"Swedish IBM used up to 11 subsidiaries and subcontractors in different countries, among them Romania, Croatia, Czech Republic and Serbia. ``But how the data would flow she did not understand'', witnesses a consultant who evaluated IBM's offer before the contract signing.
The ones who got "the keys to the kingdom" where three IBM administrators in Czech Republic, with full access to all data and logs. It meant the possibility to copy and distribute data and then remove all traces.
The computer systems' various firewalls and all communication were handled by a company in Serbia where 14 named persons became administrators, they, too, without a security check."
[0] http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/statliga-hemligheter-kunde-...
Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach
#20Another IBM stuff up... anyone remember the Australian Census screw up? http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-25/ibm-to-pay-over-$30m-i...
That's nothing compared to their massive $1 billion Queensland Health Payroll stuff up:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-06/qld-health-payroll-deb...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-07/government-may-sack-bu...