21 Million SS numbers hacked

[unokitty]

There is someone to blame for this. GW and his administration.
They, when ruling the country, turned over nearly all of government data security over to the private sector.
With this hack, this involved China hacking those "private sector" companies which lack the proper levels of security.
GW... the gift that just keeps on giving and giving.

Obama 2008
"When I am president," said Barack Obama back in 2008, "the days of dysfunction and cronyism in Washington will be over."

U.S. cost of war on Islamic State reaches $2.7 billion, The average daily cost is now more than $9 million...

$500 million dollars to train 60 Syrian Rebels...

No shortage of money for kinetic war.

No money for protecting OPM from cyber war?

Makes you wonder who's in charge, don't it?

Tell me again, who promised to end "dysfunction and cronyism in Washington?"

Hope and more of the same...

Uno

 

[boomerang]

The management of the personnel records was contracted out to contractors in Argentina and China. They had root access to every line, every field of the database. And it's actually worse than that.

The US Agency plundered by Chinese hackers made one of the dumbest security moves possible

Contractors in Argentina and China were given "direct access to every row of data in every database" when they were hired by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to manage the personnel records of more than 14 million federal employees, a federal consultant told ArsTechnica.

The massive breach of OPM's database — made public by the Obama administration this month — prompted speculation over why the agency hadn't encrypted its systems, which contain the sensitive security clearance and background information for intelligence and military personnel.

Encryption, however, according to Ars, would not have helped in this case because administrators responsible for managing these records had root access to the system, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity Dr. Andy Ozment testified yesterday at a two-hour hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

And it turns out that a systems administrator responsible for handling the agency's records "was in Argentina and his co-worker was physically located in the [People's Republic of China]," a consultant who worked with an OPM-contracted company told ArsTechnica.

"Both had direct access to every row of data in every database: they were root."

http://news.investors.com/ibd-edito...false-promise-of-competence-in-government.htm

Cybersecurity: "When I am president," said Barack Obama back in 2008, "the days of dysfunction and cronyism in Washington will be over." Tell that to the 22 million government workers whose personal data are now in the hands of Chinese hackers.

It's hard to top the Office of Personnel Management when it comes to government incompetence. The agency — which houses data on millions of current and former government workers, including security clearance files — had been repeatedly warned that its network was vulnerable and that it was not in compliance with federal information security requirements. And it did next to nothing.

In May 2009, OPM's inspector general issued a "flash audit alert" noting its "security policies and procedures continue to remain severely outdated" and this was "compromising the confidentiality, integrity and/or availability of information."

By 2012, the IG was still complaining that OPM "does not have the ability to detect unauthorized devices connected to the OPM network."

Last year, it said OPM lacked "a comprehensive inventory of servers, databases and network devices," didn't do routine scans of its network for trouble and had substandard authentication requirements.

In the weeks since OPM revealed the latest attacks, it has managed to look even more incompetent. First, it downplayed the attack, then repeatedly revised the numbers upward, and even now laughably calls the attack an "incident" that involved "data exfiltration."

The National Journal reports that OPM still hasn't put out a request for bids to handle the massive job of providing identity theft protection to the multitudes.

Now it faces lawsuits from the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union, which say OPM is guilty of "reckless failure to safeguard personal information."

Obama's crony appointment to OPM — Katherine Archuleta, whose prior job was national political director for Obama's re-election campaign — has resigned in disgrace.

And yet Obama has remained almost entirely silent on the issue, despite the national security implications.

All this under a politician who said at almost every campaign stop he'd bring forth "better government, smarter government, a more competent government" if given the keys to the White House.

 

[Bowfinger]

The management of the personnel records was contracted out to contractors in Argentina and China. They had root access to every line, every field of the database. And it's actually worse than that.

The US Agency plundered by Chinese hackers made one of the dumbest security moves possible

http://news.investors.com/ibd-edito...false-promise-of-competence-in-government.htm

Remember this the next time you're about to cry that we need to run government like a business. Outsourcing IT to other continents is exactly how big businesses are doing it, too. It may save money -- "may" being the operative word -- but it also compromises security and quality. Look at all the big businesses who reveal major cyber-security breaches ... and then realize they're only the tip of the iceberg. Businesses usually try to keep breaches quiet, and very, very often, don't even know they've been breached.

 

[John Connor]

True, but yours is actually non-partisan and sane.

Oh, forgive me sire for posting political shit in a political shit sub-forum. Bozo!