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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

#41

Post by staticelf »

rhblake wrote: post #34
depressedpanda wrote: post #25

Here's a summary of what foreign powers got access to: - identities of undercover operatives - personal identity data of everyone with a driver's licence - people with protected identities - location of all army vehicles - money transport vehicles - classified infrastructure information Even worse: when they realized they'd leaked photos, home addresses and SSNs of protected identities, they sent a clear text email a…

Well, she was also fired (finally) and her career is finished. I agree it was monumentally stupid. But "punished as high treason"? Treason requires intent. She most certainly did not intend to be criminally disloyal to the country. Merely being ignorant and incompetent is not treason. This is a major fuckup but let's be real. Our country is a "joke"? I know complaining is a national sport in Sweden, much like in many…

Wait what? She knew that was a possibility and that it is highly illegal and still she went through with it.

I would say that is having intent if anything. I love my country but I think she should be punished a lot harder. Arkebusering på slottsgården. But since that will never happen, 12 years in jail is probably enough.

Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach

#42

Post by Hasknewbie »

jjawssd wrote: post #31
rconti wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not familiar with Sweden's "feminist" government. Can you help foreigners understand? Was it, for example, a matter of existing staff members hiring new ones based on gender rather than on competence? Any reading material on the matter? It sounds like it's a well-known political argument in Sweden, I just don't know the background.

https://acidmuncher.wordpress.com/2017/02/08/feminist-trump-...

TL;DR: Link is to a rambling blog article about a perceived slight (moving money from a 'foreign aid' budget to a 'refugees' one) that will have an unsubstantiated outcome (Sweden will accept only male refugees in the country), apparently based on a well-known falsehood ("most refugees are single adult males" [1]). Blog has articles such as "Sweden should have guns like Texas because ISIS!".

Blog author is not Swedish but lives there. You gotta love how immigrants (who typically don't peep much and commit either the same level of or less crimes than natives [2]) are often accused of not integrating enough, while you can always find white immigrants like our blogger here ready to lecture their host country on how they should run themselves.

I suspect some of the off-topic comments in this thread are because this is about Sweden, a country that has become the target of all sorts of fantasies by much of the Western far right.

[1] http://www.snopes.com/refugee-invaders-meme/

[2] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00148-015-0543-2

Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach

#43

Post by tofflos »

Hopefully we can have a public discussion about ethics and vendor responsibility once the dust settles. If the government was so negligent that we may get a new one, then perhaps the vendor should have been aware of it? Perhaps they shouldn't have suggested such a solution in the first place? Perhaps they should have outright refused? Perhaps they should have demanded that the government change the law before proceeding? In what country do you get a free pass from the law just because the customer says so?

These vendors are being paid big money, and unlike our elected government officials, they are expected to be knowledgeable - experts in their field.

Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach

#44

Post by alfla »

rhblake wrote: post #16
hutch120 wrote: post #11

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...

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…

article paywall

Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach

#45

Post by unknown_apostle »

- identities of undercover operatives...

This is terrible. When will people learn to NOT use computers at all for some things. Use typewriters and spend a little bit more on administrative workers. You trade in processing efficiency for making these catastrophic breaches rarer.

Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach

#46

Post by staticelf »

maaaats wrote: post #36
azm1 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't understand the connection between the two. Do you mean the financial considerations? Yep.They try to save money on the most crucial part of every country and yet they spent vast amounts on so called refugees.It does not make any sense to me..

Why do you say "refugees" in quotes and "so called refugees"?

Most likely because they are coming through Denmark and is not really fleeing from war anymore.

Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach

#47

Post by unknown_apostle »

depressedpanda wrote: post #25

Here's a summary of what foreign powers got access to: - identities of undercover operatives - personal identity data of everyone with a driver's licence - people with protected identities - location of all army vehicles - money transport vehicles - classified infrastructure information Even worse: when they realized they'd leaked photos, home addresses and SSNs of protected identities, they sent a clear text email a…

From elsewhere in Europe, but I hear your frustration.

Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach

#48

Post by HearMeRoar »

depressedpanda wrote: post #25

Here's a summary of what foreign powers got access to: - identities of undercover operatives - personal identity data of everyone with a driver's licence - people with protected identities - location of all army vehicles - money transport vehicles - classified infrastructure information Even worse: when they realized they'd leaked photos, home addresses and SSNs of protected identities, they sent a clear text email a…

>Here, Swedes believe that Trump is such a catastrophe, and wonder why Americans could vote for him. We should instead look at our own pathetic "feminist" government, and ask ourselves how and why we got here.

Swede here. I don't even know how many times I've thought and said these exact words. Spot on.

Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach

#49

Post by staticelf »

The biggest problem with this story is not that it happened, it is that it could happen again. IT issues is heavily underestimated in government agencies and corporations [1], viewed like it' nothing important. The same goes for politicians, they don't give so much attention to IT at all.

The problem is of course lack of knowledge. They don't understand how important it is and that it is one of societies most critical infrastructure today.

Hopefully this incident will be a lesson to politicians and government agencies to care more about security and IT in general.

[1]: http://www.sakerhetspolisen.se/publikationer/fallstudier-och...

Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach

#50

Post by maaaats »

staticelf wrote: post #46
maaaats wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you say "refugees" in quotes and "so called refugees"?

Most likely because they are coming through Denmark and is not really fleeing from war anymore.

That just moves the goalpost though. Denmark could say the same to Germany, and they to southern countries. Should the beach-cities of Italy carry all the responsibility? Should we in Norway not help humanity, because there are some other borders between us and the problems?

(Not aiming this at you)

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