SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the blatantly-obvious-is-hard-to-comprehend dept.
John Arquilla at ACM writes:
What a pity that senior leaders in the American government and intelligence community have decided to play political football with the alleged Russian hacks of John Podesta's and other Democrats' emails. By using these intrusions to gin up fears about the "integrity" of the electoral process—which is already befouled by the focus on finding and spreading dirt on the opposition—the real story is being neglected. And what is that real story? It is that, despite more than two decades of consistent public warnings that have reached the highest levels of government, cybersecurity throughout much of the world is in a shameful state of unpreparedness.
Take the United States, for example. Since the mid-1990s, there have been approximately 200 cybersecurity bills brought before Congress. Only one has passed, quite recently at that, and it only calls for voluntary information-sharing about cyber incidents. Legislation aside, there have also been several government-sponsored commissions and top-level exercises focused on understanding and illuminating the cyber threat. Each of these has signaled that "the red light is flashing;" that is, American cybersecurity is in very poor shape. Indeed, former cyber czar Richard Clarke and Robert Knake, in their book, Cyber War, list the U.S. as having the poorest cyber defenses among the leading developed countries.
TL;DR: The lesson(s) are: we must improve defenses, better use of strong encryption, and don't wait for government policy to protect you.
Previously:
Obama Orders Sweeping Review of International Hacking Tied to U.S. Elections
How Hackers Broke into John Podesta and Colin Powell's Gmail Accounts
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Francis on Wednesday December 28 2016, @07:11PM
Perhaps, but who else should people vote for? I did a write in because I'm in a state where my vote doesn't count, but voting for Clinton would have been a disaster as well. She was running on a platform where she promised absolutely nothing except being a woman and got her ass handed to her because the other guy was making promises. It remains to be seen just how much of that turns out to be true, smart money is on very little, but at least he understood that he had to actually offer something to the voters.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 28 2016, @08:05PM
LOL, I just upset a butthurt Clinton supporter.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday December 29 2016, @09:24PM
True, but completely besides the point, which was that the US intelligence community says they have [roof it was Russia, and it's damned troubling to have the President Elect who is either lying (normal for a politician... drain the swamp?) or doesn't credit his workers with knowing what they're doing.
I agree that there were no good choices in any of the four parties.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org