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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
The Democratic National Committee (DNC), still reeling from the hack on its computer system that resulted in a bunch of leaked emails and the resignation of basically all of its top people, has now created a "cybersecurity advisory board" to improve its cybersecurity and to "prevent future attacks." .
"To prevent future attacks and ensure that the DNC's cybersecurity capabilities are best-in-class, I am creating a Cybersecurity Advisory Board composed of distinguished experts in the field," interim DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile wrote in a memo. "The Advisory Board will work closely with me and the entire DNC to ensure that the party is prepared for the grave threats it faces—today and in the future."
Sure. That sounds like a good idea. But, then there's this:
Members include Rand Beers, former Department of Homeland Security acting secretary; Nicole Wong, former deputy chief technology officer of the U.S. and a former technology lawyer for Google and Twitter; Aneesh Copra, co-founder of Hunch Analytics and former chief technology officer of the U.S.; and Michael Sussmann, a partner in privacy and data security at the law firm Perkins Coie and a former Justice Department cybercrime prosecutor.
[...] But none of them are actual cybersecurity experts. I have no problem with these people being on this advisory board, but it's insane to put together a cybersecurity advisory board that doesn't include at least a single (and probably more) actual technologist with experience in cybersecurity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 17 2016, @02:01AM
I remember Terry Childs.
As I recall, he was a network administrator working for the City and County of San Francisco whose management changed and who took his job too seriously.
When the incompetent management demanded the passwords, he refused to reveal them to people whom he thought were incompetent.
Whether they were competent or not was not Terry Child's decision to make. And that was his mistake.
He should have given them the passwords and let them fuck things up. THAT would have been justice.
Terry Childs made the same mistake EVERY information technology professional makes, at least once.
I infer that he treated the invitation from his previous management, to "own" the infrastructure and make it his, as a literal invitation, not a metaphor for responsibility.
As a systems and network administrator I deal with people every day who say that it is "their" laptop or "their" desktop computer or "their" office or "their" desk or "their" chair - even taping crap all over to mark it as "theirs".
I say, grow up. We are here to make money, and add value ... not fight over what's yours.
~childo
PS: I was going to sarcastically suggest that I was surprised there was no Wikipedia page covering this breathless sequence of events ... but I am slightly nauseated to see that there IS web page.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 17 2016, @03:13AM
I knew it. I knew someone would reply with the Nazi following orders meme.
"Do what you're told when you're told, because money."
Fuck you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 18 2016, @06:54AM
There's a difference between breaking the law/doing obviously immoral things because you're ordered to and doing your fucking job. If your boss orders you to do something immoral/illegal, its your moral and legal responsibility to ignore that order because following it will result in you being fucked, but if its something thats neither immoral nor illegal then you sure as shit are supposed to do your damn job. The Nuremburg Trials were about "following orders" not being a valid defense or justification for criminal misconduct. This is all completely unrelated to Terry Child's criminal misconduct because he was not asked or ordered to break the law or commit immoral acts, and in fact his refusal to follow orders is where he started breaking the law. There is no doubt that his refusal to divulge the passwords to the actual owners constituted a crime.