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President-elect Donald Trump is clearly antagonistic toward the mainstream media. That attitude is unlikely to change after Inauguration Day. His disdain for journalists and reluctance to release details about his finances and business ventures may force journalists to rely increasingly on anonymous sources, a strategy that reputable news organizations have long frowned upon.
So in the age of Trump, how should a reader approach coverage that relies primarily on anonymous sources?
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Fraud is the homage that force pays to reason.
-- Charles Curtis, "A Commonplace Book"
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Monday January 09 2017, @02:29PM
His disdain for journalists and reluctance to release details about his finances and business ventures may force journalists to rely increasingly on anonymous sources, a strategy that reputable news organizations have long frowned upon
It would be interesting if this results in an increase in hacking for journalistic purposes, like the stuff that happened to the DNC last election, only aimed at Trump and his administration.
I lean towards thinking the burden should be on people to secure their own systems rather than this sort of thing punishable by law. Or at least that this should be the case for politicians.
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday January 09 2017, @03:33PM
I lean towards thinking that it's a fine thing that our political systems are so easily hacked. I want to know a much as I can about what my elected representatives are really up to and how they are really thinking about the questions they're supposed to be answering, and leaks and hacks are a great way of doing that.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by jmorris on Monday January 09 2017, @03:46PM
I lean towards thinking the burden should be on people to secure their own systems rather than this sort of thing punishable by law.
Not sure that can work. I know it easy to point and laugh at how easy the DNC and Podesta were hacked and the string of failures in how they handled it and say it was their fault. But that doesn't get to the solution. The reality is that if people were allowed to come try your door's lock 24/7/265 with no consequence for failure, even if they jam tools in the lock that costs you money to have fixed, there aren't many locks you can buy that will keep them out. Then if you allow them power tools and earth movers and again say that if they breach your home that was on you to have secured it better, can you see how this is utterly incompatible with civilization? We come together, found nations, build governments, pay taxes and endure laws we don't always love as the price of living in a peaceful civilized place where we don't have to build every home as a bunker.
Well it is about time for an Internet like that. Where we aggressively hunt down the people probing defenses (not the Pentesters) and make sure they understand that is not tolerated any longer. Punish the curious script kiddies until it isn't fun, utterly ruin the ones earning money doing it, entirely drop routing to countries who act as havens, etc. Disrupt the incentives. Will that stop nation state actors launching fiendish attacks that evade detection because they are so subtle? No, of course not. Bulk phishing, random probing, etc, should be solvable though.
Look at the incentives in the current situation and you can make some educated guesses as to why this situation endures.
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Monday January 09 2017, @04:23PM
The reality is that if people were allowed to come try your door's lock 24/7/265 with no consequence for failure, even if they jam tools in the lock that costs you money to have fixed, there aren't many locks you can buy that will keep them out.
That's very true, but at that point you should probably invest in some more effective defense than just a lock. And if you are of that much interest to possible thieves, should the rest of us bear the expense of your defense?
Then if you allow them power tools and earth movers and again say that if they breach your home that was on you to have secured it better, can you see how this is utterly incompatible with civilization?
If somebody gets past my lock into my home and takes my property, I no longer have my property. If somebody gets into my computer and copies my bits, I still have my bits.
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Monday January 09 2017, @04:39PM
That's very true, but at that point you should probably invest in some more effective defense than just a lock. And if you are of that much interest to possible thieves, should the rest of us bear the expense of your defense?
The point is there is no purely passive defense that is effective. When they stand around your house with lock picking tools the police carry them away. Same for more secure locations. Sure we expect a bank to have a vault and a security system as basic precautions. But again, we don't allow any old dickhead to stand in front of the door with power tools and give it a go with no consequence. And that is the biggest part of the security, the fact you have to be able to get in, get through the door and clean away in one go with no previous attempt.
If somebody gets past my lock into my home and takes my property, I no longer have my property. If somebody gets into my computer and copies my bits, I still have my bits.
And if most of the value of those bits was in you knowing them and nobody else knowing them, that value is now stolen. And if those bits were your banking information and your account is now cleaned out, you still having those bits means nuthin'. What if they access your system, command your garage door to open and drive away in your spanking new Benz? And if they encrypted all of your bits and now want you to wire money to a dodgy bitcoin account in exchange for the decryption key, then what? Or what is they are just assholes and replaced all of your bits with zeros for the lulz? Bottom line is if we are to entrust computer system with valuable bits we have to be able to trust the security systems.
So take all that "information wants to be free" hacker weenie bilge and flush it, time to grow up and join the real world. We depend on computers for securing life and property on a daily basis, we need to start building and defending them like it matters.
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Monday January 09 2017, @06:11PM
So take all that "information wants to be free" hacker weenie bilge and flush it, time to grow up and join the real world
I'm looking for a higher level of conversation than this.
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday January 09 2017, @06:18PM
Might as well look for diamonds in a septic tank. I was wondering why the hell J-Mo runs around carrying a dull knitting needle, until I realized it's actually an axe that he's ground to within an inch of nonexistence.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...