4655851
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samzenpus
on Thursday May 28, @12:02AM
from the skeletons-in-the-closet dept.
Yehuda writes
"Wired reports, 'Yet another breach of sensitive, unencrypted data is making news in the United Kingdom. This time the breach puts Royal Air Force staff at serious risk of being targeted for blackmail by foreign intelligence services or others.
The breach involves audio recordings with high-ranking air force officers who were being interviewed in-depth for a security clearance. In the interviews, the officers disclosed information about extra-marital affairs, drug abuse, visits to prostitutes, medical conditions, criminal convictions and debt histories — information the military needed to determine their security risk.
The recordings were stored on three unencrypted hard drives that disappeared last year.'"
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It's no wonder... (Score:3, Insightful)
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The moat thing was a few grand! And this is a "scandal", is the word thrown about... compare that to other "scandals", such as stuff with stanford, madoff, aig, enron, to name a few off the top of my head... major collapses, hundreds if not thousands of people losing their jobs and/or life savings, and what do we have going on here? "A couple grand to clean my moat please!" *lol* I've never been so proud to be British.
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Re:It's no wonder... (Score:4, Insightful)
Bad as it is, the amount pales into insignificance when compared to what we have given banks.
I bet there are a lot of bankers breathing sighs of relief that the focus of the public's ire has switched away from them.
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I suppose the difference is that we expect bankers to be lieing, theiving cheats but our politicians are at least supposed to have some regard for decent behaviour.
Yes the politicians are supposed to have decent behaviour but, I for one have yet to meet a single person that expect them to.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The focus of the news has certainly switched, and so the focus of the people who are just angry at whatever they're told to be angry about by what's in the news that day has switched...
But at least we're not all dying of swine flu now.
I wonder what's going to destroy society next week. One thing's certain - it's either going to be really really scary, or it's gonna make us really really angry! Maybe if we're really lucky, both!
Re:It's no wonder... (Score:5, Funny)
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Mind boggling (Score:2)
If I didn't know that, alas, such mind boggling stupidity was all too possible, I might think that "losing" these had to be some kind of set-up, and the recordings fake.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Because it's cheaper to blackmail loyality than to buy it? Duh...
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It doesn't matter so much whether the information is false or true, what matters is if you have control of the means of communication. Just ask John Kerry about the Swift Boat Veterans. Baseless information can do great damage if you have the power to shout it loudly enough. Meanwhile, BAE systems bribed a Saudi Prince over US$1billion to direct his country to make various a
Tell me... (Score:4, Insightful)
why didn't they just encrypt the disks? If it's supposed to be sensitive information, store it securely!
Re:Tell me... (Score:5, Insightful)
why didn't they just encrypt the disks? If it's supposed to be sensitive information, store it securely!
Because that would require common sense and competence.
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Re:Tell me... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Oh encryption isn't nearly as good as hiding it in an anal cavity. Even if they find it, they won't want to listen.
Mr. Bean, Ministry of Defence Internet Security (Score:5, Funny)
"Ummm..."
Re:Mr. Bean, Ministry of Defence Internet Security (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Mr. Bean, Ministry of Defence Internet Security (Score:4, Funny)
I guess this is what happens when you put a teddy bear in charge of implementing security protocols.
I dunno, I thought the "Do *not* leave at the pub" stickers on the drives were a brilliant idea.
Well, back to the drawing board.
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I feel MUCH safer now! (Score:5, Insightful)
These are the same idiots who are putting surveillance cameras everywhere, fingerprinting and taking DNA samples from musicians who are simply visiting the UK to play in a few clubs (then denying them entrance because the clubs hadn't paid a fee and agreed to report on them), and generally acting like fascists.
They're great at grabbing reams of private information they would have no right to if Britain were still a free society. Protecting it from unauthorized access? Not so much.
Goddamn wankers!
Re:I feel MUCH safer now! (Score:5, Insightful)
Indeed. I find it ironic that a nation that increasingly acts as if every citizen were a potential enemy of the state, is so free with information that could aid real enemies of the state.
I do so wish George Orwell were alive to see the UK now.
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Re:I feel MUCH safer now! (Score:4, Insightful)
He didn't need to. He was writing about the UK 60 years ago.
Now he'd just kill himself.
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When were we a free society? (Score:4, Interesting)
"They're great at grabbing reams of private information they would have no right to if Britain were still a free society."
When were we ever a free society? When has any country been "free"? I suppose there's a philosophical discussion to be had here but I get the sense that
Interested to hear when you think the UK was a 'free' society. It would have to probably be after 1928 - universal suffrage, before then women under 28 couldn't vote so they weren't very free. Couldn't be 1939 - 1952 as we had identity cards then. Interested to hear your definition of 'free'.
cheers.
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Re:When were we a free society? (Score:5, Insightful)
We gained more and more freedoms over time. Looking back, we certainly enjoy more freedoms today than we did a hundred years ago, at least in Europe. Most of mainland Europe was ruled by autocratic kings and emperors who restricted the exchange of ideas and discussions, criticising the government was often close to high treason. We sure came a long road from this.
When you look at it with a finer grained system, you'll notice, though, that liberties are in decline, though, and have been since the 1960s, at least in my perspective. It's been especially rough in the last ten or so years, when people all over the world could easily communicate with each other and exchange ideas much more easily and rapidly than ever before. Such things frighten governments and other powerful people. Because it's also never been easier to "spill the beans" and whistleblow.
Government and industry are quite close to each other these days, and neither wants some of their practices to be smeared all over the planet, for everyone to read. It's never been easier for people to get information into circulation, content is not just music and movies, it's also information and ideas, and they can be spread, multiplied and distributed just as quickly.
And that's what scares not only the content industry, but everyone who could be threatened by the quick distribution of any kind of information.
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Damned if you do... (Score:3, Insightful)
the officers disclosed information about extra-marital affairs, drug abuse, visits to prostitutes, medical conditions, criminal convictions and debt histories -- information the military needed to determine their security risk
If yes to any of the above do you want these as officers? Even the extra-marital affairs in most circumstances provide proof that the person is capable of disloyalty.
The real problem is if they have done any of this and don't admit to it, they're disloyal, liars that shouldn't be given clearance. If they do admit it, they're too stupid to be in a position of authority. The only way time you want to ask these questions is if you know the answer in advance and the answer is "squeaky clean".
Re:Damned if you do... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
If they rule out every officer who's ever cheated on their wife, screwed a hooker or gotten stoned... there'd be no candidates left :-P Hell, two out of those three are pretty much standard issue for the military.
Plus, remember that most of these guys got to where they were on qualifications (save a few from nepotism). Can this person lead soldiers (well, pilots, but the point stands), can they give orders, obey orders, and maintain their calm under adverse conditions? If they can, they're qualified (and
Re:Damned if you do... (Score:5, Interesting)
A lot of the people hiring will have indulged in all these behaviours and wont condemn someone for them. Rather it will make them part of the club. Use of prostitutes in the armed forces? Goodness - that could never happen! With some groups, the person who never touched drugs, doesn't pick up prostitutes is the one that makes everyone else uncomfortable. In Bosnia, the private military firm DynCorp was actually buying girls as forced prostitutes (and I do mean girls - some were fifteen. And this were US soldiers). Related, its one of the reasons women face a 'glass ceiling' in some areas, such as the upper military, high finance, etc. It's because the wealthy / powerful men who are accustomed to doing as they please feel uncomfortable saying: "hey lets all do some lines and pick up some hookers" when someone from "the other side" is amongst them.
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I'd better correct myself before someone else does. I referred to the employees of DynCorp as "US soldiers". Whilst there are plenty of incidents of misbehaviour on the part of any nation's soldiers (it's that odd double standard that is expected of people who are paid to kill, but not to beat people up or hurt women), the employees of DynCorp were not soldiers but service personnel, e.g. mechanics on helicopters (bad ones, apparently). Unfortunately they were still protected by the US government's refusal
Re:Damned if you do... (Score:4, Insightful)
If yes to any of the above do you want these as officers?
If you threw out everyone who has ever done that one "immoral" thing, you'd have no one left. Everyone makes mistakes. Its even in the bible somewhere--a story about throwing stones (disclaimer: never read the bible). These are officers of a military. They are trained to kill people. Measure the morality of their actions against that fact and you'll find that indulging in something like and extramarital affair is minor by comparison. My only surprise is here is the lack of encryption.
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
An affair doesn't make an officer inherently disloyal to everyone, that's far to simplistic a view to take. If there's a pattern of behaviour, then that is a different matter. Same with finances. If your forever dipping into an overdraft or are m
An information society (Score:4, Funny)
And perhaps military institutions consider attack plans, weapons secrets and such as worthy of protection but not an "inteview" that we did "ourselves", "inhouse".
We are learning more and more that this is a connected world - yes even your fridge will have an IP address and be on the net one day mark my words and EVERYTHING will need to be encrypted. Encryption grammar and other security verbiage will be second hand speak for moms and kids
"have you packed your lunch"
"Yes mom"
"And MD5 SSL'd your homework via the kerebos LDAP certificate server? You know what happened last time when Mr Jones found your SSH key unencoded on the SELinux partition - I don't want to go through that again"
"Arghh yes mom I have been over this 1000 times with you let it go - my friends and I were scanning photons of the prom dance when James accidentally Bluetoothed a letter from his brother in the army to Amy's communication jewellery which had a compaible 3DES encrytpion algorithm - now will you let it go!? Shees!"
"I'm just saying is all - I have to go and buy some groceries and when I scan my embedded subcutaneous barcode it better not say that I have been SQL Injected because of a bad CRC checksum - I won't be embarrassed like I was the last time"
please explain (Score:5, Insightful)
Someone wanna explain to me how drug-using hooker-banging ex-cons are OFFICERS IN THE ROYAL AIR FORCE?
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Re:please explain (Score:5, Informative)
Drug using: As long as it isn't in the last year, it isn't an instant fail
Hooker-banging: Not a crime
Ex-cons: In the UK, the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act means that after a certain period of time a conviction can be considered "spent"
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
There's a limit. I.e., if you're the sort of person best described as a "drug-using hooker-banging ex-con" and that's it, you're not getting in. But if you're basically an upstanding citizen who in your younger days smoked a joint or two, visited a prostitute once or twice, or got caught shoplifting some low-value item, it would be stupid for the service to reject you on that basis alone. (Actually, as far as the prostitution bit goes, fighter jocks and hookers go together like ducks and water.)
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Why do so many folks expect the people we hire for our dirtiest jobs (like thermo-nuclear incineration of entire nations) to be do-no-harm nice guys?
At best you are going to get people who act like the majority of the society they represent.
Re:please explain (Score:5, Insightful)
They're humans just like the rest of us?
The list mentioned in the summary is probably from the topics/questions asked about. That doesn't mean that everyone of the subjects - or even just one of them - has an affirmative answer in all of them. I suspect the truth is rather boring, with one officer having done some drugs in his youth, a different one having an affair, a third one preferring professionals, several with completely clean sheets, someone with a conviction for some minor (but criminal) stuff done before he joined the force, etc.
If you have to lay open your entire history - and background checks work like that - then it's very unlikely that you would find enough people with perfectly white shirts in the entire commonwealth to staff even one airforce base.
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viral marketing??? (Score:5, Funny)
Looks like goverment works the same across the oce (Score:2, Insightful)
UK Government loses all data on everyone (Score:5, Funny)
Annual reports from Whitehall departments show that the government has lost all data it ever held on anyone [today.com].
Losses have occurred through couriered unencrypted disks, misplaced memory sticks, lost laptops, briefcases left on trains and files falling down the side of the tea machine. "The real scandal is that a train was running for them to lose a case on," said a source whose name has been lost.
Treasury minister Jane Kennedy said the HM Revenue and Customs breaches did not necessarily result in data losses, or at least any that they have records of. HMRC said it takes data losses and security breaches "very seriously" and thoroughly investigates any breach that it does not lose track of.
Information Commissioner Richard Thomas has served enforcement notices on various departments for their data losses, but the departments in question could not find their office addresses to accept the notices. They noted, however, that Mr Thomas' call was very important to them, and that he had been placed in a queue.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith reassured citizens that plans for an all-encompassing ID card linked to biometric passports and a universal medical record with the NHS would not change because of these losses. "We won't even be thinking about them."
Open Government (Score:3, Funny)
I guess the British government is now following the principle of "information wants to be free". :P
consequence (Score:3, Interesting)
I guess the military should compensate said personnel for loss of career possibilities and of course improve their data protection/storage/etc policies.
only one way to keep data secure (Score:3, Insightful)
Keep it in your head. There is no such thing as absolute security, therefore there is no such thing as security. If you don't want to share something, don't share it with anybody.
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Blackmail is such an ugly word... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Since the RAF already knows... (Score:5, Funny)
On the other hand, if your boss has special forces, it could work to your advantage...
Idiot: "Sir, you know that midget fetish I spoke about during the security interview?"
Chief Idiot: "Yes? I really quite enjoyed that bit. Quite naughty!"
Idiot: "Well, there are some chaps who think they can hold it over me, for a few quid, per week... not tell the missus, and all."
Chief Idiot: "Oh, well, that's not right, I'll send some SAS over there ASAP and they won't be a problem anymore."
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Just because their bosses already know doesn't mean their wives did.
Re:Since the RAF already knows... (Score:5, Interesting)
Sounds like a convenient way to legally fire or reassign someone.
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This is how it is done with highly secretive tech (Score:3, Interesting)
I worked for a while in this area. If you want to get rid of a failing, and very expensive, defence project, the best way to do it is to have an 'accidental' security stuff up. That way you can ditch the failed program under the guise of 'national security' rather than incompetence, mismanagement, and the various other real reasons for project failures. This also means the project managers usually get off from being completely incompetent. Rather than have a failed project, they have a security breach, whic
Slashdot is not Facebook! (Score:2)
Re:Disappeared == data breach? (Score:4, Insightful)
Because with information of sufficient importance the very fact we don't have an exhaustive audit trail would be worrying (someone may of gotten access). The fact that we don't even know where it is? That, is scary. Not only is the risk that this data still exists, meaning that either careers will be ruined or national security will be endangered. But additionally it is a further reminder of how incompetent government can be with obviously important data.
Although you may find the strength of feeling some people have regarding this breech to be unfounded, I expect I am not alone in finding your opinion that nothing bad will happen because "it rarely does" incredibly naive.
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