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from the hiring-spree-commences-in-3...2...1... dept.
We had two submissions with updates concerning a US Government data breach.
A second round of hacks have been unleashed upon a vast range of already beleaguered U.S. federal government departments. The attacks again came from hackers linked to China, with the estimated figure upon personal data exposure this time running to about 14 million government employees across records dating back to the 1980s.
With each detailed personal file containing up to 780 identifying pieces of information, the breach constitutes one of the most intense computing blunders in governmental history. Though much can and has been said of the U.S. government's data collection abilities, their data protection skills clearly lack such polish.
Adam Chandler writes in The Atlantic that last week it was revealed that all of the data on Standard Form 86 — filled out by millions of current and former military and intelligence workers — is now believed to be in the hands of Chinese hackers. Form 86 requires that an applicant disclose everything from mental illnesses, financial interests, and bankruptcy issues to any brush with the law and major or minor drug and alcohol use. The application also requires a thorough listing of an applicant's family members, associates, or former roommates so hackers may have not only troves of personal data about Americans with highly sensitive jobs, but also the contacts or family members of American intelligence employees living abroad who could potentially be targeted for coercion.
At its worst, this cyberbreach also provides a basic roster of every American with a security clearance. "That makes it very hard for any of those people to function as an intelligence officer," says Joel Brenner. "The database also tells the Chinese an enormous amount of information about almost everyone with a security clearance. That's a gold mine. It helps you approach and recruit spies."
Meanwhile the number of current and former federal employees compromised has ballooned from 4 million to as many as 14 million. The scope of the breach is remarkable, experts say, because the personnel office apparently learned little from earlier government data breaches like the WikiLeaks case and the surveillance revelations by Edward J. Snowden, both of which involved unencrypted data. "This is potentially devastating from a counterintelligence point of view," concludes Brenner.
Original Submission #1 Original Submission #2
See our story on the earlier breach.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Snotnose on Monday June 15 2015, @03:54AM
one of our TLA agencies would use their knowledge for good, instead of evil.
Nah, I'm living in a fantasy world. The people in power would rather be able to collect dirt on anyone, anytime, than protect everyone from hackers.
My ducks are not in a row. I don't know where some of them are, and I'm pretty sure one of them is a turkey.
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Monday June 15 2015, @05:04AM
"If only one of our TLA agencies would use their knowledge for good, instead of evil."
Uh huh. The EPA has secretly been plotting to poison you with clean air all this time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 15 2015, @07:07AM
(Score: 1) by bitrotRnotbitrot on Monday June 15 2015, @04:45PM
As someone who has never been to the US or met many Americans in person, I can never tell if these type of comments are legit American opinions or just somebody making fun.
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Monday June 15 2015, @09:38PM
I live in the US and I often can't tell.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tibman on Monday June 15 2015, @08:46PM
Have you seen what the rivers and air are like in heavily industrialized nations that don't have environment protection laws? If a company can only be profitable by pouring toxic byproducts into the river then we don't want them to succeed.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Monday June 15 2015, @09:44PM
I visited Gary, Indiana in the early 70s. The air was orange.
I lived outside Gary in the early 1980s for a year. You could still smell the coke ovens, but it certainly was a vast improvement.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by kurenai.tsubasa on Monday June 15 2015, @11:55PM
Definitely can't tell either whether this is legit or sarcasm, especially from flyover country. My sarcasm detector isn't registering above the threshold level, so here you go.
There's no Constitutional mandate for it
This is probably true. It's been a long time since I've read the list of powers given to congress since nobody's given a damn about the 9th or 10th Amendments since last century.
Fortunately we can make more amendments as technology and society changes.
the Founding Fathers envisioned no such thing
They also never envisioned rivers starting on fire. So I'd suggest that there should be an amendment giving congress that power. I'd be receptive to debate about whether it's more appropriate to handle this at a state level instead of federal level, but municipality level or “invisible hand” aren't going to fly.
it gets in the way of building our nation's economy
I don't want to live somewhere with rivers that catch on fire. Figuring out how to have clean, sustainable industry creates jobs, too. Also, something about externalities, etc.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 15 2015, @07:52AM
If only they would actually release said poison instead of just slapping pitiful fines on corporations for violating their supposed "limits", which barely recovers a small fraction of the cost of maintaining such a useless agency.
The real problem is that governments subsidize and monopolize dirty industries with licenses and exemptions from EPA requirements. The EPA has only recently investigated groundwater contamination from fly ash. Eventually they might actually start policing new regulations concerning it. Until then coal plants will keep contaminating mass quantities of drinking water whilst renewable initiatives are taxed to death.