House Oversight Committee Blames Former OPM Leadership For Largest U.S. Government Data Breach In History

[Lucian Armasu]

The Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a report in which it blamed the former OPM leadership for the weak security policies that allowed the largest U.S. government data breach to happen.

House Oversight Committee Blames Former OPM Leadership For Largest U.S. Government Data Breach In History : Read more

 

[g-thor]

<rant> Attention politicians and bureaucrats; this i what happens when security is weak or compromised. If the law requires companies to have weaknesses built in, the bad guys know the weaknesses exist and will search for, find and exploit them, as they do with Zero Day exploits, except it will probably be easier. Then everyone will be compromised. </rant>

 

[bit_user]

It must be said that when you keep cutting budgets and trash-talking bureaucrats, negative consequences are inevitable. Republicans seem to love the private sector, but you don't see CEO's publicly humiliating their own people, cutting their budgets, waiting for them to screw up, rinse and repeat. Low pay and poor working conditions drives competent people away from government jobs. This bullying needs to stop.

We need good people in government. We need to treat them with respect, give them the resources they need for the job, and we need to make them transparent and accountable for the results. That is how you actually prevent these sorts of problems. But Republicans don't actually want a government that works, because then they'd have less to complain about.

 

[ozonefree]

BIT_USER it's apparent that you've never worked for a large company. And govt. jobs pay much more than found in the equivalent private sector. If we just eliminated all the waste (i.e. giving money to people/companies that don't need propping up) we'd have plenty left over to get security systems for our govt. Uh, BTW, surely you know how to use Google??

 

[bit_user]

BIT_USER it's apparent that you've never worked for a large company. And govt. jobs pay much more than found in the equivalent private sector. If we just eliminated all the waste (i.e. giving money to people/companies that don't need propping up) we'd have plenty left over to get security systems for our govt. Uh, BTW, surely you know how to use Google??

Wrong, wrong, wrong, and of course I can use Google. But if you get all your information about government from sites which agree with your point of view, then don't expect it to align well with reality. I have seen, listened to, and read plenty of right-wing media. I know they way they cherry-pick examples and distort things. If you actually look at what someone in the FBI makes and their working conditions, for example, you won't find much comparable, in the private sector.

Sure, when something bad happens at big companies, certain people do get hung out to dry. That's not what I'm talking about. My CEO example was about the constant drumbeat of anti-government propaganda, from the right-wing. You just don't see CEOs complaining about their employees day after day. If they did that, they'd get fired.

I'm not a government employee, but I understand all the ways in which we depend on government. Again, I just don't see how the people who do the most complaining about government are actually helping matters. I honestly don't think they want to fix government, because complaining about it has worked so well for them, as a campaign platform.

 

[falchard]

There really wasn't a problem of funding for these Bureaucrats. Bush grew the level of Bureaucrats and Regulators by 17.1%. Obama an additional 10.1%. They haven't cut them or slashed their budgets. It's purely a mismanagement of systems stemming from many sources in the public sector. Democrats and Republicans in Congress, to the employees enforcing the security. Obviously in the private sector security is taken more seriously. You have to be damn good to work on the systems in private banks for instance. So just be thankful that these guys are not in charge of safe-guarding your bank account.

 

[Nicholas Steel]

Since these comments seem to be for 2 different articles on the website: The PS4 Pro article does not indicate if the PS4 Pro is backwards compatible with all pre-existing PS4 games. It only indicates that all upcoming games (and "some" [not all] that will be patched) will work on the PS4 & PS4 Pro.

 

[Kimonajane]

Both women, want a job done right use men. Wanna bet nothing happens to them, actually they will probably get a promotion under Obama's fascist regime.

 

[warezme]

The culture of layered bureaucracy is the issue. I have spoken with IT pros, specifically the military, who know what they are doing and present plans and strategies to their "SUPERIORS" only to get them gutted or dissected into worthlessness because those same "SUPERIORS" don't know crap about security.

 

[shrapnel_indie]

It must be said that when you keep cutting budgets and trash-talking bureaucrats, negative consequences are inevitable. Republicans seem to love the private sector, but you don't see CEO's publicly humiliating their own people, cutting their budgets, waiting for them to screw up, rinse and repeat. Low pay and poor working conditions drives competent people away from government jobs. This bullying needs to stop.

We need good people in government. We need to treat them with respect, give them the resources they need for the job, and we need to make them transparent and accountable for the results. That is how you actually prevent these sorts of problems. But Republicans don't actually want a government that works, because then they'd have less to complain about.

Democrats are no better.

Senator Diane Feinstein, who has been a champion of surveillance laws such as the 2008 FISA Amendments Act and its 2012 renewal, as well as the “Cyber-Patriot Act” legislation passed under the guise of “cybersecurity legislation” last year, also tried to pass an anti-encryption bill in the Senate.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/lawmakers-encryption-regulation-house-report,32180.html

Feinstein is not only very anti-2nd Amendment, but here she doesn't want your data protected and secured behind encryption. She is also a lifetime Democrat.

Democrats also like the people dependent upon them for everything in their lives. While Europe is asking for citizens to become less dependent, The U.S. is doing the opposite.

 

[DeadlyDays]

from what I've experienced the issue is upper level refused to follow security practices and IT isn't given the power to enforce security by cutting them off.

 

[bit_user]

There really wasn't a problem of funding for these Bureaucrats. Bush grew the level of Bureaucrats and Regulators by 17.1%. Obama an additional 10.1%. They haven't cut them or slashed their budgets.

You've heard of the sequester, right? And in general, funding hasn't been increasing fast enough to keep pace with inflation and cost increases.

The culture of layered bureaucracy is the issue. I have spoken with IT pros, specifically the military, who know what they are doing and present plans and strategies to their "SUPERIORS" only to get them gutted or dissected into worthlessness because those same "SUPERIORS" don't know crap about security.

I hope this will sort itself out, as the older generations retire.

Feinstein is not only very anti-2nd Amendment, but here she doesn't want your data protected and secured behind encryption. She is also a lifetime Democrat.

Democrats also like the people dependent upon them for everything in their lives. While Europe is asking for citizens to become less dependent, The U.S. is doing the opposite.

I'm no fan of Feinstein. I don't understand how she's the senator from the home of Silicon Valley, given the opposition of most tech firms to electronic surveillance and backdoors.

Most US government spending goes into entitlements. They are starving out most other non-defense functions of government. A culture of dependence is a worrying and unsustainable prospect.

 

[gaaah]

You lost me at OPM.

 

[gaaah]

OPM: Organization of Pernicious Mammals? Other People's Munchies? Office of Persimmons and Mangos? Order of Palpitating Maladroits? Offroad Peoples Mosque? Don't worry I'm bound to get it eventually..... yes, eventually.

 

[bit_user]

You lost me at OPM.

Yeah, Lucian should've specified it, at least once. It was worth one post, to complain about that. But, instead of the second post, you could've just done a web search for "OPM data breach".

So, it's referring to the Office of Personnel Management. Among other things, they maintain a database of federal employees and beneficiaries.

It was so bad that not only is there a wikipedia article on just the data breach, but it's actually longer than the article on the OPM:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Personnel_Management_data_breach
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Office_of_Personnel_Management

To be honest, I didn't previously know about the OPM. It sounds like they mainly check for conflicts of interest and do security clearance.

 

[IsThisLongEnough]

And govt. jobs pay much more than found in the equivalent private sector.

This statement is ludicrous. I work in the public sector and it's just not true.