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Office of Personnel Management Says Hackers Got Data of Millions of Individuals

nytimes.com

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Re: Office of Personnel Management Says Hackers Got Data of Millions of Individuals

#61

Post by rhizome »

itistoday2 wrote: post #44
metaobject wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was listening to the Senate hearing on Wednesday where they were asking the FBI director questions about this issue. They were talking about how they need to include the tech community in the conversation about how to best solve the problem of making sure the govt can access encrypted messages, etc. when they're conducting an investigation. Senator McCain started asking questions about how it was possible to mainta…

Well, "But, ISIS!" is not a real argument, that should be clear. Backdoors make the situation worse, not better. We'll still have ISIS, we'll be even less secure, and we'll have lost whatever is left of our right to privacy. Pretty much a lose-lose for everyone involved (except maybe ISIS). The answer to "But, ISIS!" is not backdoors, it's foreign policy.

US Foreign Policy is not considered to be a matter for democratic concern and consideration. Any time it's brought up as a reason, it's always to be translated to "because we said so and we're the only ones who have the power to affect it."

Re: Office of Personnel Management Says Hackers Got Data of Millions of Individuals

#62

Post by a3n »

murbard2 wrote: post #26

And yet, tomorrow they'll have no qualms making the case that, of course, the government can securely keep backdoor keys to investigate encrypted communications.

Half of us came here to say this.

We should keep saying it to our reprehensatives in Congress.

Re: Office of Personnel Management Says Hackers Got Data of Millions of Individuals

#63

Post by comrade1 »

MichaelCrawford wrote: post #43
engi_nerd wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why does Lockheed have hundreds of people involved with writing and testing avionics software for this aircraft? Why does Northrop Grumman have hundreds of engineers working on avionics hardware? Why does Lockheed Martin have an entire B737 that it heavily customized to test all of this hardware and software? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_CATBird

You have a wooden head.

Humor is not allowed on HN. It's for our own protection - most of the people here are so autistic a simple ironic statement could lead to the end of the internet as the HN readers spaz out all at once.

Re: Office of Personnel Management Says Hackers Got Data of Millions of Individuals

#64

Post by dsfyu404ed »

justonepost wrote: post #32

What's problematic about this is clearance data usually involves investigators asking questions of references of the applicant: "Do you know anything that could be used to blackmail the applicant into revealing confidential information?" If that sort of info was saved (even for those rejected clearance because they DID find something) and stolen in this hack, that could be rough going for a lot of folks. https://www.…

This is why they say anyone in government or contractor work should get at job that will get them a clearance ASAP once they're out of school. Someone fresh out of school has a hell of a lot less history for the gov't to ask about and record than someone who's in their 40s.

So what if the red bastards get the file of someone who's 22yo and just out of school? Chances are it's 90% OSInt anyway.

Re: Office of Personnel Management Says Hackers Got Data of Millions of Individuals

#65

Post by yuhong »

mpyne wrote: post #47
murbard2 wrote: post #26

And yet, tomorrow they'll have no qualms making the case that, of course, the government can securely keep backdoor keys to investigate encrypted communications.

Have the secret backdoor keys for Dual EC DRBG leaked yet? Nuclear launch codes and authenticators? Analogies are useful but don't get carried away, especially when talking about something as broad as "the government" (as if it were one singular thing). The fact that a BLM federal officer lost his firearm doesn't instantly mean that all of our Tomahawk cruise missiles are next to be stolen.

I think the decrypted data would probably be an easier target.

Re: Office of Personnel Management Says Hackers Got Data of Millions of Individuals

#66

Post by MichaelCrawford »

engi_nerd wrote: post #58
MichaelCrawford wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see your point. However a problem we really do have is that we have lost our expertise. The COTS mandate lead to less demand for the kinds of engineers who could have prevented this breach. My friend Murray Sims is a naval civil service coder. He rang me up once to beg me to work for the navy: "People are dying because of software bugs." Id love to but I get a little loopy sometimes so have no hope of getting a…

I admit I was a little saddened to be insulted by someone whose work I admire. Your friend definitely has a point. People are dying because of software bugs. And process bugs. And outdated hardware. I agree with you that we have lost our expertise. I think the defense industry in general has a demographics problem. There's a lot of old guys who are about to retire. A lot of young, inexperienced people. And not enough…

I offer my heartfelt and humble apology for insulting you.

That was not my intention though I do understand why you took it that way.

I intended to insult the United States Congress.

Re: Office of Personnel Management Says Hackers Got Data of Millions of Individuals

#67

Post by MichaelCrawford »

engi_nerd wrote: post #58
MichaelCrawford wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see your point. However a problem we really do have is that we have lost our expertise. The COTS mandate lead to less demand for the kinds of engineers who could have prevented this breach. My friend Murray Sims is a naval civil service coder. He rang me up once to beg me to work for the navy: "People are dying because of software bugs." Id love to but I get a little loopy sometimes so have no hope of getting a…

I admit I was a little saddened to be insulted by someone whose work I admire. Your friend definitely has a point. People are dying because of software bugs. And process bugs. And outdated hardware. I agree with you that we have lost our expertise. I think the defense industry in general has a demographics problem. There's a lot of old guys who are about to retire. A lot of young, inexperienced people. And not enough…

Is there some way I could do military computing without a clearance?

I applied to the US Air Force Cyber Command as well as all manner of military computer security jobs. I received but one response, that my application to be an encryption machine trainer was declined.

http://www.warplife.com/mdc/resume/

Re: Office of Personnel Management Says Hackers Got Data of Millions of Individuals

#68

Post by CamperBob2 »

mpyne wrote: post #47
murbard2 wrote: post #26

And yet, tomorrow they'll have no qualms making the case that, of course, the government can securely keep backdoor keys to investigate encrypted communications.

Have the secret backdoor keys for Dual EC DRBG leaked yet? Nuclear launch codes and authenticators? Analogies are useful but don't get carried away, especially when talking about something as broad as "the government" (as if it were one singular thing). The fact that a BLM federal officer lost his firearm doesn't instantly mean that all of our Tomahawk cruise missiles are next to be stolen.

These would be the nuclear launch codes that were set to 00000000?

http://gizmodo.com/for-20-years-the-nuclear-launch-code-at-u...

No thanks.

Re: Office of Personnel Management Says Hackers Got Data of Millions of Individuals

#69

Post by [deleted] »

mpyne wrote: post #47
murbard2 wrote: post #26

And yet, tomorrow they'll have no qualms making the case that, of course, the government can securely keep backdoor keys to investigate encrypted communications.

Have the secret backdoor keys for Dual EC DRBG leaked yet? Nuclear launch codes and authenticators? Analogies are useful but don't get carried away, especially when talking about something as broad as "the government" (as if it were one singular thing). The fact that a BLM federal officer lost his firearm doesn't instantly mean that all of our Tomahawk cruise missiles are next to be stolen.

[deleted]

Re: Office of Personnel Management Says Hackers Got Data of Millions of Individuals

#70

Post by irishcoffee »

mpyne wrote: post #53
irishcoffee wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> NSA might somehow have caught this despite everything I mentioned if they were engaged in better "monitoring operations" on other government networks and international communications relays... is that really what you want? I can think of a few million people who might have, yeah.

Don't get me wrong, I'd sign up for it if the alternative is 20+ million records of private data in the hands of an unfriendly state. But then I don't think that NSA is Literally Satan™ either.

Apologizes if I came off as snarky, I was in a bad mood. People want their privacy, and they also seem to "deserve" a reason why Victoria was fired from reddit. This un-acknowledged dichotomous ideology confuses me.
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