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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

#71
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Swedis…

Please note, though, that the snopes link only refutes a specific picture used as evidence, and only gives statistics with respect to Syrian refugees - which are probably the more (perhaps only) deserving of "refugee" status by UN definitions - so it does not, in fact, disprove that "most refugees are single adult males" - and in fact - especially in Sweden - they are. I quote from [0] which links to primary sources,…

>> the snopes link only refutes a specific picture

The article provides statistics as recent as 2016. It does more than refute a single picture.

>> Syrian refugees - which are probably the more (perhaps only) deserving of "refugee" status

Just off the top of my head: Eritrea, Lybia, Western Iraq, Burma. And that's not counting locally displaced refugees who don't reach Western shores (Burundi, Nigeria, Yemen).

Regarding your source:

Specifically regarding Sweden, this does not really counter what I said. Your source notes that the demographic that leans (very) heavily male is unaccompanied minors (in fact it seems they account for almost all of the male imbalance in Sweden?). These are not single adult males (I used that term because the linked blog heavily relies on the "dangerous young adult" trope mentioned by Snopes -- by 'single' I mean 'not married'). Your source however does show that there are more adult males registered in Greece and Italy. Quick aside: registered refugees do not get to choose their assigned countries of residence if/when their status as refugee is recognized.

I'd say there is quite a world of difference between groups of "young adult males" and unaccompanied minors (who are in that situation presumably because they have lost their families).

>> and in fact - especially in Sweden - they are

But do you have better sources than this one which says these are boys, not men? The point of my post was that the linked blog made loaded claims without substantiating them, so I only went as far a providing a counter-point. Maybe the current Swedish government does in fact have a policy locally favoring male refugees directly or indirectly (which in absolute is possible since, as noted above, refugees don't get to choose where they end up), but he provided no evidence.

Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach

#72

"It said that the project manager for the outsourcing agreement admitted during questioning that “he had no knowledge whatsoever of how to ensure security.” You'd think someone would come in an consult on this, however, and setup basic protocols. A PM isn't expected to be a security expert -- that's what security experts are for.

Well, their security department/group raised the issues. Unfortunately they were regarded as a hassle and where bypassed in the discussions. They seem to have made the director general sign several documents where she acknowledged that what they were doing was agains the law. As a last resort they went to the Swedish Security Service with the information and that was what started the investigation.

Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach

#73

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…

I realy fail to see how being a "feminist" government has any bearing on the issue at hand. Sure the government screwed up, but the rant part just takes away from the valid points you've raised.

I think he means that the selection criterion to be in the government was conformance to fashionable ideologies instead of actual competence - but honestly, that is how politics works everywhere.

Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach

#76
post #43

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 proceed…

How would the vendor know the client has sensitive information that they shouldn't share. Sounds like a client responsibility.

IT sales people are rarely experts.

Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach

#78
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I realy fail to see how being a "feminist" government has any bearing on the issue at hand. Sure the government screwed up, but the rant part just takes away from the valid points you've raised.

I think he means that the selection criterion to be in the government was conformance to fashionable ideologies instead of actual competence - but honestly, that is how politics works everywhere.

But she wasn't a politician but a director of a government agency, that is why it's so dangerous wish pervasive ideologies (in this case socialist-feminist) they allow incompetent people to screw up badly and get away with it.

Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach

#79
post #70

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 critica…

There is a lot of resistance, universally it seems, to the concept that outsourcing is different to in-house development/administration. It doesn't even seem like its a knowledge issue, but rather willful ignorance. Cost, convenience, and less likelihood to be blame for faults is more important than security and control. To take one example, only government entity that I know that don't outsource email would be the m…

It's darwinian; if you don't deliver the savings you are out. One solution would be rigorous research that demonstrated that insourced onshore operations were more effective and cheaper in the long run. But no such research exists, is that because it's hard to do or is it because the result is that offshoring and outsourcing is cheaper and as good?

Re: Swedish Government Scrambles to Contain Damage from Data Breach

#80
post #76
post #43

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 proceed…

How would the vendor know the client has sensitive information that they shouldn't share. Sounds like a client responsibility. IT sales people are rarely experts.

I agree that would be the case if the vendor was providing infrastructure or platform as a service. But I don't think that's the case here.
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