Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 747 posts

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

#71

Post by grey-area »

ashleshbiradar wrote: post #56
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…

Yep, in India they directly detain all protesters anywhere near the parliament area and the immediate surroundings

The Indian parliament was attacked by heavily armed gunmen in 2001, so that's not so surprising.

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

#72

Post by pySSK »

35fbe7d3d5b9 wrote: post #46
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…

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…

I agree with the more open approach, but shouldn't her office have a simple keycard or combo lock on the door? Even Starbucks toilets have better security.

From the pictures I saw, she was still logged in and had the evacuation message onscreen. I'm guessing she didn't have 'require login after screensaver' option enabled. If the account is still logged in, this is a massive breach!

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

#73

Post by comradecorrect »

slg wrote: post #38
xpe wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My personal views aside, this is off-topic.

It is only off topic because of the title used by the person posting it. My comment was directly based off the linked article.

Comrade, you are only allowed to comment on what you are instructed to comment on, and how you are instructed to comment. Do not deviate from your instructions.

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

#74

Post by pySSK »

96394032 wrote: post #26
slg wrote: post #7

>Nancy Pelosi told fellow House Democrats that she had received reassurances about safeguards to prevent Donald Trump from launching a nuclear attack Maybe this is too political or HN, but this is the bigger news on that page. It tells me we don't have a functioning chain of command and our government is currently responding to a hard coup attempt with a soft coup which is also pretty scary. Trump should either be re…

I would hope all entities with nuclear capabilities have de facto safeguards in place to prevent anyone from actually launching a nuclear attack. Although, I would also hope they wouldn't talk about them as it diminishes the deterrent effect that is the only potentially good thing about such weapons. Nuclear weapons should never be used but people who can use them should not say that.

Agreed. This news will probably make him want to do it more.

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

#75

Post by bargl »

No shit something got stolen.

You can't have that kind of insanity inside of a workplace and expect to secure every device. There are multiple layers of security for the congress people, and many of them were exploited. They don't practice putting on masks and running their asses out of a building. I'm sure every staffer was thinking, "Did I get everything that needs to be secured?". No they were thinking, "I'm getting the hell out of here." Especially if they weren't part of the tribe storming the castle, (aka a Democrat).

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

#76

Post by 35fbe7d3d5b9 »

mumblemumble wrote: post #65
ceejayoz wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Congress isn't really one office, though. It's hundreds of individually run ones, each intended to serve the public fairly frequently. You can (generally) pop in and see your congressperson and/or their staff if you want.

You can pop in and see me, too. You just need to check in at the front desk, and can't wander around sensitive areas un-escorted.

My office is likely set up the same as yours, or at least close enough to yours. You could absolutely pop in to visit me.

But you could also grab enough of your friends to obtain a decisive numerical advantage – let's say, you and twenty of your closest friends, that probably gets close to what we saw yesterday. Be sure one or two of them are visibly armed.

Once you have your buddies, you can go break through the glass door leading to the receptionist's desk. We saw that yesterday too.

Once you're in, game over: I don't expect Nancy to tackle you at the door, or my friend Brian to kick you when you try to come into the conference room. I expect when you're inside you'll get a guest badge – or an employees – and proceed to go about doing whatever you were interested in doing.

My office's threat model – and yours – is not based on defending against a mob of people storming the building.

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

#77

Post by smcl »

akersten wrote: post #52
mimikatz wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has not been proven. This is false. Please stop spreading it. Multiple people were killed in clashes with the police. They did not help the rioters. This is the type of misinformation that caused all these problems.

Police taking selfie with terrorist: https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1346920198461419520 Police letting terrorists in: https://twitter.com/joshuapotash/status/1346931235176783873

Re the second one - I also saw some footage where a couple of police were, I dunno, ushering them or encouraging them through barriers towards the building. Like "come on, come on!" - that kind of gesture.

I have to stress though that I agree with "danaris" one level up from from this comment - it seems perfectly believable that individual police sympathised and aided these people. However it's not "The Police" as an entity as some others are suggesting, that's venturing into Q territory and is a bit Conspiracy Theory for me.

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

#78

Post by mimikatz »

akersten wrote: post #52
mimikatz wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has not been proven. This is false. Please stop spreading it. Multiple people were killed in clashes with the police. They did not help the rioters. This is the type of misinformation that caused all these problems.

Police taking selfie with terrorist: https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1346920198461419520 Police letting terrorists in: https://twitter.com/joshuapotash/status/1346931235176783873

The video (letting them in) doesn't show what you think it does. Capital Police leadership planned poorly and their leadership is at fault. They had to fall back to more secure chokepoints because they were outnumbered and overwhelmed. The cops didn't let anyone in. They killed someone and one of them was killed in the fighting. Please don't stir up trouble with fake conjecture over a 30 second clip that doesn't show what really happened. It is what caused a lot of these problems. You are making it worse.

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

#79

Post by 13415 »

slg wrote: post #7

>Nancy Pelosi told fellow House Democrats that she had received reassurances about safeguards to prevent Donald Trump from launching a nuclear attack Maybe this is too political or HN, but this is the bigger news on that page. It tells me we don't have a functioning chain of command and our government is currently responding to a hard coup attempt with a soft coup which is also pretty scary. Trump should either be re…

Even the US military doesn't have the doctrine to blindly follow any order under any circumstances. Or at least, that's what I would expect from any modern military. In any case, there is no real danger here and Pelosi is exaggerating a bit.

Fun fact: If there had been a clear chain of command and lieutenant colonel Stanislav Petrov of the Soviet Air Defense Forces had followed his orders without questioning them, then the world would probably have been destroyed in a nuclear Armageddon in 1983.[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov

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

#80

Post by DenisM »

rat87 wrote: post #32
slg wrote: post #7

>Nancy Pelosi told fellow House Democrats that she had received reassurances about safeguards to prevent Donald Trump from launching a nuclear attack Maybe this is too political or HN, but this is the bigger news on that page. It tells me we don't have a functioning chain of command and our government is currently responding to a hard coup attempt with a soft coup which is also pretty scary. Trump should either be re…

Personally I find the idea that there are any safeguards against Trump lunching nukes a comfort Nixon's aides did likewise in the days before his resignation. The fact that the president has the power to decide to punch nukes all by himself is terrifying and should have been fixed long ago

And what makes you think that it wasn't? If you were in charge of the nuke launch process you would never give the power to one man, would you? You would have probably done two things:

1. Require a broad consensus to launch (possibly with a dead-hand).

2. Don't tell anyone on the outside. Best keep the enemy guessing and the people in awe.

Throughout the history people clamored for a strong leader, so you either give them one and suffer the risks of having a dictatorship, or you give them an illusion of a strong leader. The fictitious red button works perfectly - the man carries the literal Armageddon in his pocket, his power must be divine (subject to expiration on Jan 20th).

Post reply on HN