Another day, another gigantic Big Hack Attack.
Not to sound like a nutjob, but sometimes I wonder who is hacking who.
OPM officials said as recently as Thursday evening that they believed 4.2 million people—including 2.1 million current employees—were affected by the breach, but the background-investigation form breach suggests the number could be larger. The stolen records include people who were screened by the federal government for certain jobs but decided not to accept the job after the background check was concluded, as well as people whom the government declined to hire.
Several U.S. lawmakers briefed on the investigation into the breach said they believed the hack emanated from China, though the White House hasn’t confirmed this allegation. Chinese officials have said they weren’t involved.
On June 4, OPM announced that its systems had been hacked and began notifying current and former federal employees that their Social Security numbers and other personal information could have been stolen. Other federal agencies, including intelligence agencies, aided the investigation, and officials soon learned that a wider network of data was compromised.
So… Does this mean we’re supposed to be so worried about Chinese hackers that we surrender ever more privacy in order to prevent loss of our “privacy”?
Is the NSA capable of such antics?
Can there be false flag hack attacks? If so, how the hell would anyone ever know? And (especially in light of the postmodernist left/right moral morass) how the hell is anyone supposed to believe anything?
Sorry to sound serious. I only meant to be sarcastic.
(And far be it from me to question the timing.)
Comments
12 responses to “All your records are belong to us!”
we had to destroy this village to save it american army officer vietnam 1967.
The link just leads to a blank page.
Fixed it. THANKS!
The point to hammer home on this is that fixing government security won’t fix anything. The damage is done.
The Chinese intelligence services now have a complete map of the U.S. government’s military and security services. They will have to expend a certain amount of effort keeping that map current, but I don’t think they will find that to be a problem with the information they now have available. This means that the federal government is now completely useless for the purposes of national security.
The only thing to do is scrap it and start over, before the Chinese do it for us.
“This means that the federal government is now completely useless for the purposes of national security.”
Unfortunately, that’s been true for over a decade. So, what has changed?
Sorry, my cynicism is showing.
Kathy, your cynicism is grounded in reality, and I share it. I’m also worried that this will be seen as yet another excuse to take away freedom. In the name of “national security” of course…
Intel agencies have been exchanging spies forever. A person’s loyalty who would sell their loyalty is always in doubt.
Double crosses turn into triple crosses etc.
There never was any security. What is different is that it is now not just the people who study the matter who know.
It all turns into a “Wilderness of Mirrors”. Best to live on the surface or at most one level down. Go too many levels down and you are lost.
Don’t change levels. Change your point of view.
Samizdata chimes in
http://www.samizdata.net/2015/06/trust-us-were-the-security-services/
can they provide some evidence the Russians and the Chinese even got access to these files, given that Snowden did not actually take them with him to Russia?
Is the NSA capable of such antics?
Yes, but probably doesn’t care. I mean… getting lists of people’s employment histories and SSANs is just a phone call to the IRS away, no need to bother working for it.
Can there be false flag hack attacks?
Of course.
If so, how the hell would anyone ever know?
Usually, computer forensic research by foreigners. Kaspersky has some good write ups on various interesting things on that front.
And (especially in light of the postmodernist left/right moral morass) how the hell is anyone supposed to believe anything?
Heh. Believe what you can verify, or that can be verified by people you trust. Barring that, be skeptical. 😉
Sorry to sound serious. I only meant to be sarcastic.
Oh. Crap. Dangit…
Simon,
“Don’t change levels. Change your point of view.”
We don’t have any other choice now, do we? I wasn’t kidding–the intelligence services are nothing but a menace now. And not in a snarky-cool libertarian fight-the-man sense, either. In a “we’re from Beijing and we do NOT give a flip what happens to you” sort of way.
We have to route around it, and quick.