The pseudonym "Philo Vaihinger" has been abandoned. All posts have been and are written by me, Joseph Auclair.

Monday, June 15, 2015

Glenn Reynolds gets it right, points up lessons that will not be learned

What if Pearl Harbor happened and nobody noticed?

About 14 million current and former federal employees are in a state of collective panic over the loss of their information. 

Former State Department employee Matthew Palmer was quoted as saying, "Who is in danger? I listed friends on those forms and my family members. … Are some hackers going to start going after them?"

Possibly. 

The U.S. military, even in its current somewhat shrunken state, remains an irresistible force in conventional warfare. 

But this trove of information is perfect for "fourth-generation warfare," in which conventional strengths are bypassed in favor of targeted attacks on a stronger nation's weaknesses. 

With this sort of information, China will find it much easier to recruit agents, blackmail decision-makers and — in the event of a straight-up conflict — strike directly at Americans in the government, all without launching a single missile.

. . . .

This isn't like a broken code, where we can just change things around and be almost as good as new. 

Once out, this information will remain current for years, and there's no easy or effective way of doing much about that.

But we can learn our lesson, at least. 

The United States is highly vulnerable to cyberwar, and not very good about defending against it, especially in the lame-and-inept government IT sector, which has not distinguished itself in terms of competence. (Remember HealthCare.gov?)

For the federal government, one lesson is that really important stuff shouldn't be put online at all. 

Paper documents have their problems, but at least they can't be hacked and stolen en masse.

For the rest of us, the lesson is that we should probably think twice before entrusting the federal government with our own information. 

Because if the feds can't protect their own sensitive data, on behalf of people who work for the federal government, how good a job are they likely to do on behalf of the rest of us mere citizens?

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