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Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'

krebsonsecurity.com

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Re: Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'

#921

Post by b8 »

TrackerFF wrote: post #779
b8 wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People get clearances even if they've used hardcore drugs such as cocaine and various more serious crimes than computer crimes. The adjudication guides for clearances explain this in more detail. I have a friend who exploited RCE full-chain exploits on productions servers and used to DDoS. He got a TS/SCI clearance no problem and didn't even finish college. I interviewed too and admitted to that stuff. They cared mor…

Maybe the US 3-letter agencies are a bit more forgiving, but when I worked in intelligence there were three deadly sins that would make you untouchable as a candidate: - Drug use - Financial crimes - Close ties to hostile countries (China, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, North-Korea, etc.) And at least in my country, it's not the intelligence agencies themselves that handle the security clearance, but rather a dedicated agen…

People often lie yeah. The polygraph has been proven to be pseudoscience and the tactic of we know you're lying about x to get you to spill the beans is common knowledge now.

Heres the DCSA clearance appeals page showing people getting or keeping their clearance from drugs and other issues: https://doha.ogc.osd.mil/Industrial-Security-Program/Industr...

Re: Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'

#922

Post by b8 »

2-3-7-43-1807 wrote: post #775
b8 wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People get clearances even if they've used hardcore drugs such as cocaine and various more serious crimes than computer crimes. The adjudication guides for clearances explain this in more detail. I have a friend who exploited RCE full-chain exploits on productions servers and used to DDoS. He got a TS/SCI clearance no problem and didn't even finish college. I interviewed too and admitted to that stuff. They cared mor…

taking cocaine is a more hardcore crime than computer crime?

It was just an example, but you can read the DCSA appeals page to find worse illegal stuff that has been adjudicated: https://doha.ogc.osd.mil/Industrial-Security-Program/Industr...

Re: Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'

#923

Post by pizzafeelsright »

tomrod wrote: post #919
elif wrote: post #811

I think this makes the picture quite clear. The only criteria for their selection was their ability and willingness to exfil data as fast as possible. In order to facilitate the trump blitz, as much technical action as possible needed to happen in a timeframe constrained by court procedural mechanisms.

This is why it is pretty frustrating. If they actually wanted to audit things, they'd bring in forensic accountants. Instead, they brought in "script kiddies". You aren't finding evidence of crimes after 2 days with SQL access.

I must disagree, as our team recently encountered a critical system failure potentially stemming from internal misconduct. While our personnel are typically required to possess advanced qualifications and extensive experience, the urgency of the situation necessitated immediate action despite my relative lack of formal credentials compared to my esteemed colleagues.

Given the time-sensitive nature of the incident, I took the initiative to secure comprehensive system logs, including bash histories, without prior authorization. I was able to identify the root cause: a correctly formatted command executed in an inappropriate context. This proactive approach, while unconventional, was instrumental in mitigating further disruption and expediting resolution.

The root cause was identified, and an effective remediation plan was developed within minutes.

Re: Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'

#924

Post by bko »

DanielHB wrote: post #833
bko wrote: post #828

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, unfortunately the trend has been increasing power of the state for some time. But I think the point also argues against having an extremely powerful administrative / regulatory state. For instance, suppose you want to create a department to "fight misinformation" and it will have wide ranging power to push for censorship. But depending who is running it, it might censor vastly different kinds of speech. If you…

> So I think that there's a difference between "government takeover to shrink the size of the state" is different from "government takeover to add another layer of unelected bureaucracy to run our lives" Maybe in the short term, but in the long term they are no different because the power separation is eroded in either case. If you want to reduce the size of the state you need to get congress on board with your plans…

Why do I need to get congress? Congress isn't some magical body that is somehow more responsive or well run than the executive. They have more special interests. Why would I want a delegate from some state have a say that the government should have less of a reach into my life? That just means id have to essentially bribe this person with some special carve out for his state which is how we got into this whole mess. Lot simpler to just have more or less a national referendum for delete power

Re: Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'

#925

Post by lazystar »

ttyprintk wrote: post #802
zapataband2 wrote: post #737

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uhh they've been openly talking about dismantling democracy and creating nation-states rules by corporations for literally almost a decade. JD Vance is their man in DC when trump is gone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RpPTRcz1no

As of September, Vance has indeed publicly cited Yarvin: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/09/13/jd-vance-n...

> Vance said that if Trump became president again, "I think what Trump should do, if I was giving him one piece of advice: Fire every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, and replace them with our people. And when the courts stop you, stand before the country and say, 'The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.'"[14][49]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Yarvin

well, that's certainly something.

Re: Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'

#926

Post by pizzafeelsright »

dmbche wrote: post #719
erikpukinskis wrote: post #480

Can anyone recommend a journalist who is reporting the facts of what’s happening on this subject? From what I can tell, it’s widely been reported that - Elon Musk was allowed into the Department of Education - “Big Balls” accessed Treasury computers - etc… But I have not been able to find any first person testimony that confirms those statements. From what I can tell Tom Krause is actually the one who was given acces…

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjw4g2q62xqo Ordering them to delete everything they got copies of, and the subsequent frustration from Musk. Why cares who personally violated federal law? However he managed to, Musk got unlawful access to restricted data.

Nothing in that link speaks of deletion. Wrong article?

Re: Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'

#927

Post by steve_adams_86 »

kolanos wrote: post #408
bearjaws wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are mad at your AWS bill, do you slide to your 10th line item? That is effectively what going after USAID is. To give you an idea of how poorly this has been handled, my wife's friend is an attorney working in non-profit immigration. She got told on Monday that her company is going to lay off 50% of their staff because they have no more money from USAID. Her boss found her a job at another firm a week later th…

> non-profit immigration Very vague. Wonder what they were really doing? I worked for a USAID funded company once. On the surface they were doing satellite imagery analysis for agriculture. Want to know what they were really doing? Identifying prime agricultural land in Kenya to help the Kenyan government seize it from poor farmers.

And you went through the correct channels to notify USAID that their funds were being misused, providing sufficient evidence, right?

Re: Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'

#928

Post by engineer_22 »

totallymike wrote: post #127
engineer_22 wrote: post #110

The stakes are high for these kids. They're obviously very talented individuals, but they're in deep. The reality probably isn't lost on them. I hope they stay safe, they're doing important work.

Wait, what important work are they doing?

Reportedly, seeking out fraud and mismanagement in federal government.

Re: Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'

#929

Post by rtkwe »

bfrog wrote: post #841
DanielHB wrote: post #815

I just want to highlight one thing about this whole government takeover debacle. The reason you have the separation of power (legislative, judiciary, executive) is not to be efficient, it is to prevent generational abuse. Even a well intentioned benign autocrat if given power would not part ways with said power voluntarily. So even if the current administration is "good" there is no reason why this kind of power coul…

This only works even remotely if the politicians agree to work together on some level. Modern US politics went all in on Newt Gingrich’s blockade method to ensure the big bad democrats can’t look like they ever do anything. And here we are with only slightly less broken healthcare with the ACA, a plan originally from GOP, which is constantly hounded on for being terrible. All while drug and medical prices fleece ever…

I think it's very enlightening when you recognize that every single place the US has been involved with setting up a new government we NEVER try to give them anything like our own system because it's so broken. Between the non representative Senate where one senator can block 59 others with no action (bring back the days when they had to actually filibuster a filibuster! Make it at least cost something to do.). And the mismatch between Congress and the Executive meaning barely anything gets done in the last couple decades for fear of actually giving you opponents a win at the cost of complete stagnation... It's a poorly designed system hacked together centuries ago to wrangle 13 barely united colonies.

Re: Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'

#930

Post by engineer_22 »

trickyager wrote: post #133
engineer_22 wrote: post #110

The stakes are high for these kids. They're obviously very talented individuals, but they're in deep. The reality probably isn't lost on them. I hope they stay safe, they're doing important work.

Are they, though? I'm not trying to be flippant. Rather, it's entirely unclear to me any positive outcome for these individuals or American citizen in general as a result of this effort. Can you provide vetted sources that accurately communciate actual benefits as a result of this effory for anyone other than Elon Musk and Donald Trump as individuals?

If they are actually reducing fraud and waste in government, then it's a benefit for American citizens.

Some discussion centered on DOGE being a fraud, but no evidence of that, only speculation and hyperventilation.

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