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U.S. military members' personal data being sold by online brokers

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Re: U.S. military members' personal data being sold by online brokers

#51

Post by permo-w »

wutwutwat wrote: post #48

On Linkedin there's all kinds of "Top Secret/Security Clearance" groups which lists all the members in that group. Some have 5 thousand people. Sure, some of those users don't actually have clearance at all, but many actually do, and work at firms all doing contracting for the federal government. Call me crazy, but giving out a list of people with clearance to the highest levels of secrets, usually doing tech work, i…

in a similar area, it absolutely pains me to see the amount of personal information demanded by online job applications. realistically how hard would it be for me to set up a fake job listing on Indeed and just hoover up highly valuable PII? you could even take it further with personality tests, IQ scores, RATs, etc.

if you were a foreign power wanting to gather data on defence programmers, for blackmail, corruption, surveillance etc, why wouldn't you do this?

Re: U.S. military members' personal data being sold by online brokers

#52

Post by cheeseomlit »

burkaman wrote: post #38
cheeseomlit wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The government cannot run out of its own money. It can cause inflation, but continuing to pay social security benefits is not going to suddenly cause massive inflation. Social security is a massive portion of federal spending, indefinitely printing money to fund it is not sustainable and will cause significant inflation

Why hasn't that happened yet? Also, the government is going to continue indefinitely printing money whether or not we have social security.

It has, inflation is rising rapidly in no small part due to the gov printing money to cover its obligations, of which social security is one of the largest and will only become larger as the cost of living increases due to said inflation- a vicious cycle. If contributions don't cover the payouts (which they don't, and never will unless you tax the younger generations to death) then the difference has to be made up with printing, which will of course cause inflation

You are right that they will continue printing money regardless, and at this point it's too late for a 20% reduction to fix anything. Might as well just take the checks while you can and make the most of it, not much else you can do. But that doesn't mean its sustainable or will last forever.

Re: U.S. military members' personal data being sold by online brokers

#53

Post by hindsightbias »

stonogo wrote: post #10
LtWorf wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is treating the SSN as a username and a password. It should not be the only information required to authenticate people.

The US military does not use the SSN as a username or a password. They've had smartcards, even on Linux, as far back as 20 years ago or more. Users without smartcards have to go through 2FA with a username/password combination and codes over SMS or proper TOTP (depending on agency). The problem is that the entire Department of Defense is still very much a paper-oriented organization, and they got rid of service numbe…

You should sit in on a call to dfas.mil sometime. Where they ask an 80 year old over a dozen obscure questions on their service record and hang up when you get one of them wrong, resetting the clock 24 hours.

Re: U.S. military members' personal data being sold by online brokers

#54

Post by [deleted] »

jklinger410 wrote: post #12

I heard this on NPR and I appreciate the avenue by which the red flag is being raised, but it bothers the shit out of me, because EVERYONE'S personal data is being sold by online brokers. The implication that their data is more important or something just seems like a ploy to get more eyeballs on the research.

[deleted]

Re: U.S. military members' personal data being sold by online brokers

#55

Post by jjkeddo199 »

eli wrote: post #45
jjkeddo199 wrote: post #33

Seeing drone dropped grenades everywhere in Ukraine has made me worried about normalized "drone drop murders" spreading to the rest of the world. With widely available addresses gang violence, political killings, and even online flamewar escalations will become much much uglier. Who needs to do a driveby shooting if you could drop a homemade bomb from a McDonalds bathroom 20 miles away using some jailbroken drone? Vi…

Seems like being able to look up people's home address is a pretty minor part of that threat?

At the risk of sounding hyperbolic:

Imagine Iranian agents using these address books to track down naval officers in San Diego from across the border in Tijuana. Having a global address book lowers the barrier for hunting people down and hurting them. This is already happening to off-duty Russian officers mowing the lawn at home.

Re: U.S. military members' personal data being sold by online brokers

#56

Post by cycomanic »

jjkeddo199 wrote: post #33

Seeing drone dropped grenades everywhere in Ukraine has made me worried about normalized "drone drop murders" spreading to the rest of the world. With widely available addresses gang violence, political killings, and even online flamewar escalations will become much much uglier. Who needs to do a driveby shooting if you could drop a homemade bomb from a McDonalds bathroom 20 miles away using some jailbroken drone? Vi…

Sometimes the US perspective of things is completely surreal for me as a European. In a country where you can buy assault rifles with minimal background checks, people worry about addresses being available because someone might be able to look up the address to kill them with a drone and a home made bomb.

Re: U.S. military members' personal data being sold by online brokers

#57

Post by libraryatnight »

akira2501 wrote: post #20
jklinger410 wrote: post #12

I heard this on NPR and I appreciate the avenue by which the red flag is being raised, but it bothers the shit out of me, because EVERYONE'S personal data is being sold by online brokers. The implication that their data is more important or something just seems like a ploy to get more eyeballs on the research.

Service members are uniquely vulnerable. They are employed by the government which makes them a target of hostile foreign powers, and they're often ordered to give away their personal information while in service often out of habit and not out any genuine need to have the service members SSN.

Nothing you listed is unique to the military. The private sector is also the target of hostile foreign powers. The private sector is also made to feel obligated to give away more personal information that is likely necessary.

Re: U.S. military members' personal data being sold by online brokers

#58

Post by wutwutwat »

fusslo wrote: post #35
jjkeddo199 wrote: post #33

Seeing drone dropped grenades everywhere in Ukraine has made me worried about normalized "drone drop murders" spreading to the rest of the world. With widely available addresses gang violence, political killings, and even online flamewar escalations will become much much uglier. Who needs to do a driveby shooting if you could drop a homemade bomb from a McDonalds bathroom 20 miles away using some jailbroken drone? Vi…

are explosives as easy to get as bullets & guns where you live?

You can buy Tannerite without an explosive license from the ATF. It's been used in past bombings. Plus, unless they outlaw anything from crude oil, alchohol and the plants used to produce it, gun powder, fireworks, and most chemicals under your kitchen sink, there are thousands of combinations that produce a material that can be used to make explosives. Access or lack of isn't the limiting factor, people's willingness to do it is and always will be the case. Air can make an explosive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tannerite

Re: U.S. military members' personal data being sold by online brokers

#59

Post by jonnybgood »

wutwutwat wrote: post #48

On Linkedin there's all kinds of "Top Secret/Security Clearance" groups which lists all the members in that group. Some have 5 thousand people. Sure, some of those users don't actually have clearance at all, but many actually do, and work at firms all doing contracting for the federal government. Call me crazy, but giving out a list of people with clearance to the highest levels of secrets, usually doing tech work, i…

It’s pretty normal for job seeking since there are jobs that require a clearance before any other consideration. There’s a whole job site dedicated to clearances.

https://www.clearancejobs.com

Re: U.S. military members' personal data being sold by online brokers

#60

Post by kajecounterhack »

cycomanic wrote: post #56
jjkeddo199 wrote: post #33

Seeing drone dropped grenades everywhere in Ukraine has made me worried about normalized "drone drop murders" spreading to the rest of the world. With widely available addresses gang violence, political killings, and even online flamewar escalations will become much much uglier. Who needs to do a driveby shooting if you could drop a homemade bomb from a McDonalds bathroom 20 miles away using some jailbroken drone? Vi…

Sometimes the US perspective of things is completely surreal for me as a European. In a country where you can buy assault rifles with minimal background checks, people worry about addresses being available because someone might be able to look up the address to kill them with a drone and a home made bomb.

> In a country where you can buy assault rifles with minimal background checks, people worry about addresses being available because someone might be able to look up the address to kill them with a drone and a home made bomb.

Drones and IUDs may be less traceable than guns and offer even less risk to the user. Currently if you're going to use a gun, you basically have to be suicidal or care zero about the consequences.

But that also brings up a good point -- people worry about addresses being available because someone might be able to use a gun and kill them as well. Or hell, just their fists.

Doxxing is dangerous, is this not the case in Europe as well?

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