Hard Light Productions Forums

Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Flipside on June 04, 2015, 05:16:34 pm

Title: Massive cyber attack on Federal Government
Post by: Flipside on June 04, 2015, 05:16:34 pm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-33017310

It seems that millions of Federal workers details have been stolen in a cyber-attack.

Not much info yet, I'm sure more will be forthcoming.

Doesn't bode well for all these data retention laws our Governments keep trying to enforce...
Title: Re: Massive cyber attack on Federal Government
Post by: Klaustrophobia on June 05, 2015, 05:53:50 am
As a government worker, I can state first hand that government IT security is abysmal.  Our IT and data security departments aren't qualified professionals, they are everyday workers promoted/transferred from within.  Everyone knows that security is terrible, but the people trying to fix it don't have the slightest clue what they are doing.  Our password requirements get more ridiculous every year.  Almost all of them are retained forever somewhere to make sure you don't re-use.  Some of them you even have to select from a pre-determined list (of about 20).  I'll try to track down one of the actual password requirement lists later. 
Title: Re: Massive cyber attack on Federal Government
Post by: Phantom Hoover on June 05, 2015, 08:37:22 am
Almost all of them are retained forever somewhere to make sure you don't re-use.  Some of them you even have to select from a pre-determined list (of about 20).

ahahahaha holy ****
Title: Re: Massive cyber attack on Federal Government
Post by: Klaustrophobia on June 05, 2015, 02:35:49 pm
Oh, and our government computers run McAfee and Symantec on top of each other, both massively out of date.  You know, so the government can approve any definition updates before they are installed on government systems.

Really about the only thing they do right is the smart card logons.
Title: Re: Massive cyber attack on Federal Government
Post by: Ulala on June 05, 2015, 06:26:58 pm
Our tax dollars hard at work...paying Symantec and McAfee. :(
Title: Re: Massive cyber attack on Federal Government
Post by: jr2 on June 06, 2015, 12:26:05 am
Oh, and our government computers run McAfee and Symantec on top of each other, both massively out of date.  You know, so the government can approve any definition updates before they are installed on government systems.

Really about the only thing they do right is the smart card logons.

Can confirm.
Title: Re: Massive cyber attack on Federal Government
Post by: Dragon on June 06, 2015, 07:43:47 am
All this while NSA spends millions of dollars for research on cyberspying, cryptography and bypassing security measures... :lol: All these experts should spend some time making sure that their own data can't be stolen and systems compromised. In a much less sophisticated way than what they use, no less.
Title: Re: Massive cyber attack on Federal Government
Post by: Phantom Hoover on June 06, 2015, 11:32:15 am
The NSA sabotaged the crypto standards that the US government is mandated to use, so I don't think they care.
Title: Re: Massive cyber attack on Federal Government
Post by: Klaustrophobia on June 06, 2015, 11:43:42 am
But don't worry, the Freedom Act gave all our data to telecom corporations to safeguard now.  We're TOTALLY safe.

Well, unless you're a fed employee like me I guess.  Waiting to see if I'm one of the 4 million.  Pretty pissed they decided it was okay to sit on this for more than a month before telling the people affected.  And then not even telling us, we had to find it out from the news.