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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

#91

Post by tayo42 »

rhino369 wrote: post #47
Fauntleroy wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To prevent unauthorized entry, Capitol Police would have had to put up a fight. Seems they were unwilling to do so. If America continues down this path Russia (and others) are just gonna have a field day.

Firing on a mob is risky as hell and not morally clear. I can't blame Capitol Police--at least for the actions after it already got out of hand. If federal security at Court House shoots BLM protestors who are entering a federal court house, those security people would probably get charged with murder. It's unreasonable to expect Capitol Police to make that sort of moral choice in the moment. And if you give cops the…

I think it was a happy accident that possibly being complicit meant this didn't go as bad as it could have. We have a great example of de-escalation working.

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

#93

Post by 35fbe7d3d5b9 »

davidw wrote: post #82
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…

Seems like it ought to be possible to have both, to some degree. I don't want the capitol to be a fortress, but they need to prevent stuff like this. I mean... the US spends massive amounts of money on the police and military. I think it should be kind of like a non-Newtonian fluid. Walk in slowly and peacefully and it's ok. Try and punch it, it solidifies quickly.

American history[1] shows this probably isn't a requirement - beyond a foreign military attacking, which is clearly out of scope of policing, the other attacks were acts carried out by isolated people. "Storming the gates" hasn't happened before now.

I suspect the main reason that this hasn't happened before is that very large protests/gatherings are often met with a large show of police force to ensure the protestors know this isn't an option. Why that didn't happen today will be interesting to investigate. We all probably have a theory, but what comes out of the inevitable hearings on this will be interesting to see.

[1]: https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/07/us/us-capitol-violence-histor...

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

#94

Post by hsnewman »

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…

Looks to me like they stood down, being complicit with the insurrection. This often is how 3rd world nations are overthrown by dictators with the militarys help.

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

#95

Post by stonesweep »

spzb wrote: post #50
astura wrote: post #20

The link appears to be some sort of live news feed and right now unrelated stuff about covid, articles of impeachment, and Trump's power to launch nukes is dominating the page, you really have to scroll to get to the laptop story I think this is the direct link: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2021/jan/08/donald-... The "story" is also really just a link to this tweet: https://twitter.com/Drew_Hammill/status…

Thanks. I did post the direct link but it seems to have been truncated

Here is the actual source of information which should be the link: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-cyber/laptop...

edit: it's confusing as to what the actual, documented source other than "he said she said" is after looking at all three

edit edit: a previous HN submission which didn't gain comment traction pointed at Reuters: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25688418

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

#96

Post by bbg24 »

jordache wrote: post #62
coldcode wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the brightest of bulbs, I bet they closed it to carry it away.

I'm sure they didn't send in their best IT experts in the first wave. Billy Bob likely won't know to keep the machine from going to sleep, esp in the chaotic scene.

Can you explain the Billy Bob reference for me?

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

#100

Post by jnwatson »

ascales wrote: post #4

Clearly a big deal and congressional IT staff are going to have a crazy few weeks ahead of them. However, my understanding is that any classified information would have to be in a SCIF. I assume that would be the case with congresspeople as well. I've also heard that the congressional paging system locks devices when an emergency is announced, but haven't seen that corroborated anywhere. Anyone know if that's true?

Only DoD Top Secret data must be stored in a SCIF.
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