Which is, it should go without saying, why we don’t tell them we’re doing it.
Actually, it’s known and expected that government networks like SIPRNet cannot be completely protected, which is why the data only goes up to the level of “Secret”. One reason for this is to share as much data as possible across mulitple government agencies in the hope of avoiding the intelligence failures and poor communication that prevented any chance of stopping the 9/11 attacks.
Manning’s rank doesn’t matter. Millions have access the network he compromised. He’s a United States soldier and intelligence analyst. He took an oath and he willingly violated it, allegedly. If he had uncovered criminal activity by his superiors and/or by military contractors and given it to Wikileaks, this would be a different story. As it stands, he’s just a garden-variety criminal.
Wrong, and wrong
For instance, a simple user log of accessed information crosschecked against expected access patterns should have seen Manning being flagged. A quarter of a million embassy documents accessed by a PFC. That should have seen alarm bells ringing instantly if your security system is worth a shit.
And that’s why the rank does matter. If you’re not doing any form of user profiling to automate the most basic of checks to ensure that data access is within reasonable patterns, such as querying why a very low level officer is querying such huge volumes of data, then you’re being stupid. If you’re giving cross the board access to all information to such a low level office then you’re being stupid.
Not when that strength is used to engage in wars of conquest and torture on a worldwide scale. When that’s the case. a weak, ineffectual America is better for Americans. No doubt being weak an ineffectual would piss off of America’s leaders, but if they’re torturing people and engaging in opportunistic warfare, screw em.
Ah, the classic “you aren’t worthy” copout; that seems to have been gaining popularity on the SDMB. It saves having to actually come up with a defense for your position I suppose.
Gosh. The US will have a harder time bullying the rest of us now. How terrible.
Yes, I get it. But I don’t have a problem with it
The sexual tension between you two is almost unbearable. I wish you’d go ahead and relieve each other.
Just when you think it can’t get any more bizarre than it already is, the new spin is that while not denying unfounded pressure (i.e. lies) from Israel w.r.t. to Iran it is in fact Saudis who are leading the way asking for “head of snake to be cut off”.
Wow!
I had no idea that the standard is so low when you can point to bunch of privileged medieval religious “royalty” nutbars to make yourself look good. Shit I took this morning is more democratic than these turds.
This is golden. Shower, that is. And people are taking it like it’s morning dew… :rolleyes:
He’s getting a thumping, not a humping.
And an idiot like you evidently doesn’t understand that even if some of the particular information released this time doesn’t hurt us, or even helps us, that it simply can’t be allowed. Let’s say there is nothing this time around that can hurt us, how do you know that will be the case the next time around? Leaks are bad and cannot be allowed. Leaks en masse bad are worse. Does that help, Idiot?
Nonsense. Bank robbers are doing us all a favor by pointing out the weakness of bank security.
They’re just another form of whistle-blower.
Regards,
Shodan
You know, your level of stupidity has always been somewhat refreshing. Quite often I get concerned that someone’s being ironic, and not quite as dumb as they appear…but then along comes you, with such a genuine and self evident level of fuckwittery that there’s just no doubting it.
The issue, my dear little chump, is that data crime is not a one time thing (which on preview I see Shodan is also confused by, but no surprise there). Unlike stealing money from a bank, if I steal data it’s still there to be thieved by other ne’er-do-wells. If you have one data leak like this, where a low access employee/officer can pull down a quarter of a million documents with not so much as a query until the leak was made public, then you can bet that there’s many other leaks. In fact if you’ve got such a blatant leak as this, it’s a very good bet that there’s a whole stack of worse security issues that you don’t know about, all sitting there to be exploited. Not this petty shit about Prince Andrew being rude to someone or Berlusconi being an old tart. Serious information with real military value to people who don’t like the US. Follow so far? Probably not, but I’ll soldier on.
So how this benefits you, my dear challenged chums, is that now the problem is public, and embarrassing enough that powers that be might just do something about it.
Do you follow so far, old fellow? To put it in terms you may be more personally familiar with, it’s like a mental health issue. Until you acknowledge there’s a problem, you’re not likely to do something about it. If the US data security policy was a person, this little incident is the equivalent of walking down the high street smeared in its own shit, claiming to be the king of neptune. It’s going to be a little difficult for even the scapegoating twunts that run your data networks to say everything’s fine, nothing to worry about. So yes, this has actually helped you a lot.
Rest assured, if either you or Shodan needs further help trying to understand the above, I’ll be more than happy to keep shining a little more light on your darkness.
Maybe, but from the cheaper seats it looks like a lot of “sez you!” and “so’s yer old man!” between you and the world’s least mellow snowboarder.
Great News, Mr. President - a play
BO - Barack Obama, played by Barack Obama
WHSO - White House Security Officer, played by Gary Kumquat
SATURDAY. THE OVAL OFFICE. NOON.
WHSO: Mr. Obama, we have some great news!
BO: Really? I could use some good news.
WHSO: Well, the chances of someone breaking into the residence and raping one of your daughters just plummeted. It’s is now lower than ever! Granted it was always low, but now it’s much, much, much lower.
BO: Well, that’s good news, I guess. How’d you accomplish that?
WHSO: Well, that’s more of a good news/bad news thing. It turns out that this morning someone did break into the residence and raped Malia.
BO: WHAT?! Are you out of your mind—you said you had great news.
WHSO: It is great news. Thanks to that break in and rape, we were able to plug a hole in our security. So, as I said, the already low chance of someone being able to break in and rape one of your daughters is now lower than ever!!!
BO: GUARD!
Guard: Yes, sir!
BO: Shoot this stupid motherfucker in the head, please. And that’s an order.
Goddamn, you’re stupid.
…says the man standing at the bus stop wearing swim fins and a snorkel and little arm floaties.
Oh, right, you’re not stupid, just living in an entirely different reality. Gotcha.
I think he and Dutchman must both live in Delusionville.
And that, Mags, is pretty much what I mean by you being sincere in your stupidity. You wear it like a badge of pride. It’s almost charming.
You feel that the act of rape is comparable to data theft. Now, unless you feel that you could rape someone without them noticing at all, that’s just not a good analogy.
I could well believe that people have described you as forgettable, but seriously they don’t even notice your efforts at all? Shit, that goes a long way to explaining the latent hostility.
But we’re not simply talking about the people who have access to the material in the first place, we’re talking about those who take that material and release it. We have Bradley Mannings and Julian Assanges, in other words, so we do have general population concerns in there.
And while I can sympathise with the idea of a fast bringing to trial and sentencing - certainly if you want to make an example, you have to be as quick about it as possible so people can link it to the crime - I am* immensely *wary about calling for fast justice. I know you’re simply talking about those aspects of a trial and setencing which can be safely “hurried”, but still, it’s not something i’m all that comfortable with.