Re:Secrecy mounts over White House cybersecurity staff shakeup
by pcl on Thursday February 09, 2017 @07:41PM
(#13612397)
This story has been flagged, and I think that's a shame. I understand the concerns about turning HN into another political discussion rant forum. However, this is relevant news to this audience, for two reasons:
- It's about the CISO of a high-profile establishment, and his team.
- National cybersecurity policies are likely to impact the decisions that the software and hardware folks of us will make over the coming years.
Re:Secrecy mounts over White House cybersecurity staff shakeup
by DanBC on Thursday February 09, 2017 @05:34PM
(#13611661)
> It would be amazing if they went back to typewriters as being 'unhackable' devices.
Considerable amounts of money and expertise have been thrown at sound analysis, and it's used in a range of situations from telling what submarine is in your waters to knowing what a typist is typing.
And eventually people put parallel ports on typewriters because typists are more expensive than a parallel port, at which point you've got a cumbersome but very hackable printer.
Re:Secrecy mounts over White House cybersecurity staff shakeup
by hourislate on Thursday February 09, 2017 @06:12PM
(#13611919)
In all seriousness I feel like the administration is already compromised so why would they need any Cyber Security. It seems they have a very close and personal relationship with Putin and Russia. Could they have also given up the two Russian Security guys that were passing information on to the previous administration as a gift to Putin for his help in the election?
This story just gets more interesting all the time.
Re:Secrecy mounts over White House cybersecurity staff shakeup
by yborg on Thursday February 09, 2017 @05:39PM
(#13611698)
Only if they go all the way back to mechanical typewriters.
"... in 1985 Soviet spies installed secret "keystroke loggers" and antennas in at least 13 typewriters in the US Embassy in Moscow to detect and transmit the typing patterns of embassy secretaries. "
Re:Secrecy mounts over White House cybersecurity staff shakeup
by khazhou on Thursday February 09, 2017 @05:19PM
(#13611561)
Here is a transcript of our President's statement on cybersecurity during the debates:
"I have a son. He’s 10 years old. He has computers. He is so good with these computers, it’s unbelievable. The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough. And maybe it’s hardly do-able. But I will say, we are not doing the job we should be doing, but that’s true throughout our whole governmental society. We have so many things that we have to do better, Lester and certainly cyber is one of them.”
Re:Secrecy mounts over White House cybersecurity staff shakeup
by pcl on Thursday February 09, 2017 @05:27PM
(#13611618)
I upvoted the parent because I agree with his sentiment -- we shouldn't pick on Trump's son. khazhou's quote puts the GP in context, however; this is not a critique of any of Trump's kids, but rather of Trump's fundamental lack of awareness of the complexities of the cybersecurity space.
Re:Secrecy mounts over White House cybersecurity staff shakeup
by prawn on Thursday February 09, 2017 @06:24PM
(#13612005)
Was Trump really saying that his kid can solve cybersecurity issues, or is he just unable to deliver an ad hoc speech without barely relevant rambling?
Re:Secrecy mounts over White House cybersecurity staff shakeup
by cyberferret on Thursday February 09, 2017 @06:16PM
(#13611949)
Not a fan of Trump's policies, actions or attitudes here, but this 'article' wasn't much more than a series of rumours, guesses and third had accounts gathered together on one page. One could infer many things from this story, and that does a disservice to the journalism profession.
If providers are serious about stamping out the constant cries of 'fake news', I would like to think that articles be more well researched, and solid & verifiable proof of evidence is found, and presented in a way that cannot be refuted or challenged.
Re:Secrecy mounts over White House cybersecurity staff shakeup
by simplicio on Thursday February 09, 2017 @06:47PM
(#13612113)
Really? Other than two sentences from an anonymous source, everything in the article is verifiable. The story itself is fairly opaque, but then that's what the article is reporting, that it isn't clear why the CISO left, and that neither the WH or the man himself will comment.
They don't offer any guesses, and even the headline stresses that they don't know.
- It's about the CISO of a high-profile establishment, and his team.
- National cybersecurity policies are likely to impact the decisions that the software and hardware folks of us will make over the coming years.
You know, classic, tangible, "built to last" stuff.
It would be amazing if they went back to typewriters as being 'unhackable' devices.
Considerable amounts of money and expertise have been thrown at sound analysis, and it's used in a range of situations from telling what submarine is in your waters to knowing what a typist is typing.
And eventually people put parallel ports on typewriters because typists are more expensive than a parallel port, at which point you've got a cumbersome but very hackable printer.
Researchers recover typed text from audio recording: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7448976
Acoustic snooping: https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2005/09/09/acoustic-snooping-t...
And Germany was thinking of trying exactly this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/109...
Algorithm recovers speech from the vibrations of a potato-chip bag filmed through soundproof glass - http://news.mit.edu/2014/algorithm-recovers-speech-from-vibr...
The gist is that typewriters aren't really that much more safe. You still have a weak human element, and it's also easy to bug a typewriting machine.
This story just gets more interesting all the time.
"... in 1985 Soviet spies installed secret "keystroke loggers" and antennas in at least 13 typewriters in the US Embassy in Moscow to detect and transmit the typing patterns of embassy secretaries. "
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
"I have a son. He’s 10 years old. He has computers. He is so good with these computers, it’s unbelievable. The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough. And maybe it’s hardly do-able. But I will say, we are not doing the job we should be doing, but that’s true throughout our whole governmental society. We have so many things that we have to do better, Lester and certainly cyber is one of them.”
Though I do think that this kind of sarcastic humor is not appropriate on HN.
If providers are serious about stamping out the constant cries of 'fake news', I would like to think that articles be more well researched, and solid & verifiable proof of evidence is found, and presented in a way that cannot be refuted or challenged.
They don't offer any guesses, and even the headline stresses that they don't know.