Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Friday October 25 2019, @07:44AM   Printer-friendly
from the buttery-males dept.

White House kicks infosec team to curb in IT office shakeup

An internal White House memo published today by Axios reveals that recent changes to the information operations and security organizations there have left the security team in tumult, with many members headed for the door. And the chief of the White House's computer network defense branch—who wrote the memo after submitting his resignation—warned that the White House was likely headed toward another network compromise and theft of data.

The White House Office of the Chief Information Security Officer was set up after the 2014 breach of an unclassified White House network by Russian intelligence—a breach discovered by a friendly foreign government. But in a July reorganization, the OCISO was dissolved and its duties placed under the White House Office of the Chief Information Officer, led by CIO Ben Pauwels and Director of White House IT Roger L. Stone. Stone was pulled from the ranks of the National Security Council where he was deputy senior director for resilience policy. (Stone is not related to indicted Republican political consultant Roger J. Stone.)

[...] "It is my express opinion that the remaining incumbent OCISO staff is being systematically targeted for removal from the Office of Administration," departing White House network defense branch chief Dimitrios Vastakis wrote in the memo. The security team had seen incentive pay revoked, scope of duties cut, and access to systems and facilities reduced, Vastakis noted. Staffers' "positions with strategic and tactical decision making authorities" had also been revoked. "In addition, habitually being hostile to incumbent OCISO staff has become a staple tactic for the new leadership... it has forced the majority of [senior civil servant] OCISO staff to resign."


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday October 25 2019, @04:57PM (1 child)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday October 25 2019, @04:57PM (#911722) Journal

    I think the NSA can secure a phone.

    But the old saying . . . you can lead a jackass to a secure phone, but you can't make him use it.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by deimtee on Saturday October 26 2019, @12:01AM

    by deimtee (3272) on Saturday October 26 2019, @12:01AM (#911920) Journal

    The fine article at DeathMonkey's link specifically says that the phone the NSA have 'secured' can be intercepted by China and Russia.
    It almost has to be deliberate malfeasance by the intelligence agencies and phone company.

    I mean, they claim his desk phone is secure, so how hard would it be to set up his phone as a fully encrypted link back to his desk and have it make the calls from there?
    Take your pick of possible reasons:
    - An iPhone doesn't have the CPU power to run real-time encryption
    - NSA isn't capable of encrypting an audio/video/text stream
    - NSA isn't capable of writing an app that transparently intercepts all comms and routes them through the encryption channel to the secure system
    - They deliberately don't do it so that they can complain about him using an insecure phone

    --
    If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.