After the Power Grabs: Gov Doesn’t Care What Happens to Us – It’s On to the Next Grabs

How many times has government royally messed up something?  And not fired anyone?  Or done anything that remotely resembles improving their performance?

Oh so very often.  In part because they don’t care – once they have the power, they don’t care what happens to us.  In part because they are too busy planning their next grabs.

A pristine example?

Federal Union Says (Office of Personnel Management) OPM Breach Hit Every Federal Employee

The OPM Breach Is a Catastrophe

First the government must own up to its failure. Then the feds should follow this plan to fix it.

Good luck with that.

China Blamed for Massive Breach of US Government Data

Except:

China Gets Pass from Obama on ‘Devastating’ OPM Hack

Did government yet again ignore the rules they mandate we follow?

Reacting to Chinese Hack, the Government May Not Have Followed Its Own Cybersecurity Rules

At least the government immediately realized the breach, right?

Officials: Chinese Had Access to U.S. Security Clearance Data for One Year

The considerable lag time between breach and discovery means that the adversary had more time to pull off a cyber-heist of consequence….

Well it’s just the one, right?

Second Data Hack Might Be Bigger Than First OPM Breach

The second intrusion “involved a different system and a different set of data, and I think you could logically conclude that … a larger amount of data and information was potentially affected,” (White House spokesman Josh) Earnest said.

Government vigilance – there’s nothing like it.

Via: Human Events

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Hack the vote: Cyber experts say ballot machines easy targets

Experts say voting machines could be susceptible to hacking. (AP)

The recent cyber theft of millions of personnel records from the federal government was sophisticated and potentially crippling, but hackers with just rudimentary skills could easily do even more damage by targeting voting machines, according to security experts.

Voter fraud is nearly as old as elections themselves, and different states and precincts use different voting systems and machines. But in many cases, even the electronic ballots could be manipulated remotely, according to a new reportby the Commonwealth Security and Risk Management for the Virginia Information Technologies Agency. That report found that the AVS WINVote machines Virginia has used since 2002 have such flimsy security that an amateur hacker could change votes from outside a polling location.

"Our entire democracy depends on systems with minimal, easily bypassed security.”

- Cris Thomas, Tenable Network Security,

“This means anyone could have broken into the machines from the parking lot,” said Cris Thomas, a strategist with the Columbia, Md.-based Tenable Network Security, one of the nation’s leading cyber and enterprise security firms. “Our entire democracy depends on systems with minimal, easily bypassed security.” 

Via: Fox News

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[VIDEO] CBS NEW: CHINESE HACK IS REALLY BAD, CAN’T PUT LIPSTICK ON THIS PIG

CBS News reported on the hack by the Chinese government, saying it’s an embarrassment for an administration that has made cyber security a top priority. One official told CBS News that the hack is really bad and there is no way to put lipstick on this pig.

Watch:

Via: The Right Scoop

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Taxpayers Need to Protect Themselves When IRS Can’t

 (Reuters)

It probably seemed harmless last year to give a big shout out on your Facebook page to your first grade teacher. Unfortunately, cyber-thieves can use that information to steal your identity and break into your online accounts.

That’s what happened to the IRS. The tax agency is the latest target of cyber criminals who used so-called knowledge-based authentication information to illegally access the tax returns of about 100,000 U.S. taxpayers.

The breach at the IRS is particularly onerous because the information included on tax returns is especially detailed and personal – information that includes back account numbers, childrens’ names and ages, health care expenses, addresses of various residences, etc…

Knowledge-based authentication is commonly used by Web sites as an added measure beyond Social Security numbers and dates of birth. Account holders are asked questions such as their mother’s maiden name or the name of their first grade teacher or the account holder’s favorite color. In other words questions whose answers only the account user would know.

“Those are the same questions when resetting a password and they pop up in a variety of places,” said Robert Siciliano, an identity theft expert with BestIDTheftcompanys.com.

The problem is that much of that information can be gleaned from account user’s social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram, where people tend to post every detail of their life, including their mother’s maiden name, the name of their first grade teacher and their favorite color.

Via: Fox Business

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Menendez: Make stores responsible

Following the Target hacking, he said firms must be accountable for stolen information.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. Sen. Robert Menendez wants the federal government to hold companies accountable when their customers' financial information is stolen.

The New Jersey Democrat is taking on the topic after last week's revelation that information about 40 million Target customer accounts had been stolen.

At a news conference Thursday outside a Target store in Jersey City, Menendez said he wanted to make sure retailers are "putting their customers ahead of profits." He announced that he had requested details from the Federal Trade Commission on whether it can fine firms for security breaches and whether laws should be changed to protect consumer data.

"We need to know if the FTC has the teeth to hold retailers who failed to protect consumers' information accountable," Menendez said.

The senator said he "has a feeling" that the agency will not be able to levy fines or penalties against companies. When a data breach occurred at Marshalls and T.J. Maxx in 2006, the FTC wasn't able to fine the stores' parent company as part of a settlement agreement.

"Our country's consumers depend upon safe and secure transactions, and especially at this crucial time of year, our country's retailers must commit to fulfilling that expectation," Menendez wrote to FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez.

Menendez said he wanted the FTC to recommend if further legislative action is needed to help protect consumers against having their financial information stolen.

Via: Philly.com

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