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Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

reuters.com

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Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#591

Post by vladTheInhaler »

derg wrote: post #69
bilbo0s wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're being naive if you believe that Russia and others didn't already have a field day at the Capitol yesterday. I wouldn't worry as much about what these guys took from offices and server rooms as I would worry about what little digital gifts these guys may have left behind in the offices and server rooms.

Yep. The entire building needs to be completely scrubbed down and all tech needs to be taken and destroyed. A complete fresh start. Move operations to a new building while this is happening.

It honestly boggles the mind that capitol police announced the all-clear as soon as they did. I mean they found pipe bombs in the RNC and DNC headquarters. No way did the conduct the kind of thorough search that would ensure that nobody left a pipe bomb in an air vent or in a random filing cabinet.

And that goes double for mysterious flash drives randomly stuck in people's computers, or bugs hidden in planters etc. Just an absolute travesty.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#592

Post by heavyset_go »

Yajirobe wrote: post #311
jjkaczor wrote: post #149

Myself, I would be more worried about any keyloggers, or wifi/cell interception, "man-in-the-middle" devices being left behind...

did you see the photos of the rioters? Do you really believe they are that tech-savy?

I saw highly compensated business owners, lawyers, and IT professionals in the mob.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#593

Post by kube-system »

IkmoIkmo wrote: post #392
mmmBacon wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a huge democrat (lower case d) I totally agree. Locking down the Capitol is antithetical to the notion of open democracy. Lawmakers and the law making process needs to be physically accessible by the People. This was what the Founders intended. Of course there is some risk here and Jefferson himself noted this. That’s the price we pay for living in an open and transparent society. While I don’t condone or support…

I think that's nonsense. Access to a lawmaker or representative in a village may work like that. When you represent a state of 20 million, access means making an appointment and going through security clearance. There is a voting mechanism, a free press and various other mechanisms to back me up if I am consistently deterred from speaking to my public representative. But I'm in no way expecting to just walk in there,…

I also walked into my congressperson’s office when I was on a field trip as kid. The security was similar to going to the airport.

> Might as well argue that you should be able to just walk into the white house and speak to the top public representative.

Entirely different situation. The reason that people need to talk with the legislature is because those are the people’s representatives.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#594

Post by tandr »

rayiner wrote: post #216
mumblemumble wrote: post #14

Beyond the information security risk around the loss of this specific device, what really worries me is the physical security implications here. I'm certainly no expert on the subject, but it seems to me like, in a building like the US Capitol, it should not be anywhere near this easy for unauthorized people to waltz into an office or conference room in the first place. Let alone walk away with items from within that…

That’s just how the Capitol (and most US state houses) is. My wife has on multiple occasions waltzed down to the (non-public) underground subway that connects the Capitol to the Senate and House office buildings to chat with members of Congress. The Capitol Police usually say “well you’re not supposed to be here, but I guess it’s okay.”

This is not the information for a public forum, sorry.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#595

Post by pjc50 »

jacquesm wrote: post #68
mumblemumble wrote: post #14

Beyond the information security risk around the loss of this specific device, what really worries me is the physical security implications here. I'm certainly no expert on the subject, but it seems to me like, in a building like the US Capitol, it should not be anywhere near this easy for unauthorized people to waltz into an office or conference room in the first place. Let alone walk away with items from within that…

The US Embassy in Amsterdam is better protected than the Capitol.

Apparently there was a joke going around latin america twitter that the coup failed because there is no US embassy in DC to support it.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#596

Post by valuearb »

suifbwish wrote: post #387
baybal2 wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would enemy spies get out of that. Even prima fascie top military secrets like battle plans (those must be updated and shuffled regularly to prevent a situation exactly like that) have very little immediate usefulness. It's 21st century, it's beyond anybody's ability to hide things like size, dislocation, and basic capabilities of your force

Oh you think the generals readily involve old Pelosi with the battle plans? I sort of doubt they would trust her with anything digital that’s supposed to be a secret.

Pelosi just had a confidential conversation with the general in charge of US nuclear codes.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#597

Post by hchz »

throwaway201103 wrote: post #480
ucha wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's usually the second lowest security level, just above "Public" and below "Secret".

Never heard it called that. What I have heard is something along the lines of "confidential but unclassified" which seems more descriptive to me.

This would never be used by USG. Confidential -> Classified

The classification scheme is broadly cut up into Confidential, Secret, Top Secret, and Codeword. There are many modifiers to that such as Five-Eyes, Cosmic (NATO), and Restricted-Data (Nuclear Weapon Design).

There are a menagerie of controls that don't rise to classification, like NOFORN, Law Enforcement Sensitive, For official use only, etc.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#598

Post by heavyset_go »

x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #140
Ericson2314 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have a shit battery + full disk encryption + linux with broken hibernate support :D

Did Linux ever fix the hibernate stuff? I remember 5 years ago, it was a MUST to disable it, because the system would go to hibernate and never wake up again without a hard restart.

Hibernate works well on my Macbook with Ubuntu installed.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#599

Post by hchz »

VistaBrokeMyPC wrote: post #545
ucha wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's usually the second lowest security level, just above "Public" and below "Secret".

Third lowest; NOFORN is above public

NOFORN is not a level but an orthogonal restriction.

Information could be Secret and NOFORN or Secret and Five-Eyes, for instance.

Re: Laptop stolen from Pelosi's office during storming of U.S. Capitol, says aide

#600

Post by kube-system »

JamesSwift wrote: post #465
35fbe7d3d5b9 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've traveled to countries before whose offices of government are behind very large fences, protected by unfriendly looking men standing behind heavy machine guns in armored vehicles – and the guide books are very clear that you are not to take photos of them. I much prefer the approach taken in the USA, where our offices of government are accessible to the people that the government serves. It's very good that I can…

For national security buildings (e.g. the NSA) it is the exact same as your foreign country experience. The guards around the perimeter are very quick to engage and ask what you are doing if you meander around the outside.

Yes, it is understandable that security works that way in a building occupied by people whose job it is to keep secrets... but that is not the way security should work at a building of democratic representatives where their job is to be publicly accountable.
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