This Makes Me Feel Secure
from the depends-on-your-definition-of-security dept
For the third year in a row, the Department of Homeland Security has been awarded an F for its cybersecurity. Remember that this is the government agency charged with protecting, you know, computers and stuff. Perhaps it's really not that surprising, given how DHS doesn't use backups, but has an exec from an adware company on a data-privacy board and employs begging as a security technique. The results were to be revealed at a hearing today called "Is the Government Ready for a Digital Pearl Harbor?" With the DHS' F, and the federal government overall getting a D+, the answer appears to be a resounding no.
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terrorists have computers?
but really, what terrorist is going to use a computer to harm us right, OH WAIT!
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Here's an idea
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Surprise
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RE:Suprise
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What, a government agency?
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Re: Attention
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Gore me
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No Thanks
Plus The better our government is at securing stuff, the better it is going to be at hacking into my stuff. No, Thanks for the offer though.
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Re: No Thanks
"Frankly I dont really want a government that is competent at computer security. I would rather do it myself, or pay someone to do it for me, because then I know they have an incentive to do it well.
Plus The better our government is at securing stuff, the better it is going to be at hacking into my stuff. No, Thanks for the offer though."
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Agreed
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Re: Agreed
But really, Im in canada and I know its time you guys changed your ways
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Re: Agreed
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RE: #12
Quick!!! Someone send the feds Ad-Aware and Spybot - Search & Destroy!!! If you don't you are with the terrorists!!!
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Search & Destroy
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RE: #14
To anybody who thinks it CAN'T happen, you are wrong, it HAS happened.
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Considering that the Department of Homeland security was made directly because of the new world spotlight on terrorism, it does seem obvious that they would focus their resources to trying to keep the people physically safe.
Also, remember that these terrorists are quite unlikely to implement a cyber-attack because they just don't have the trained personnel(though, I suppose it won't be too hard if they looked.)
Furthermore, I doubt the government has yet realized the importance of cybersecurity, since although IT has been around for decades, it is still growing and its influence has not been fully understood, thus DoHS may have left it alone.
Could you imagine what the public reaction would be if they decided to spend alot of their money on cyber-security? if the public found out, atleast a few would be disturbed that homeland security is doing this, and not a better agency specifically focusing on technological issues.
nevertheless, the fact that the entire government averages a D in terms of cybersecurity isn't very encouraging, but also anticipated since most (local/county and maybe even state) institutions are run by people who have very minimal understanding of technology, I doubt this will change until about a decade or so when the current generation has taken charge.
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Force 'em to secure it
They'll have no choice but to improve security.
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Re: Force 'em to secure it
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No system is ever secure....
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yeah brilliant...dopes
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Want to fix this?
Cybermarines
The government needs to round up all these brilliant, bored kids we have running around that hack and crack.... and GIVE THEM JOBS.
They have proven themselves time and time again, they're the best at what they do - and think what they could do to some outdated Win95-running pentium 75 that controls the coolant system on those nuclear reactors in Iran. "You want a bomb noobs? Okay, we'll give you one."
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Hmmmm, what about this doesn't make sense?
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