How is the widespread collecting and sharing of our personal information via a vast maze of government computer in any way going to contribute to the security of the American people?
Worth repeating-There is no such thing as a secure database. Especially so since the drive by our government to link so many together. Each system is as vulnerable as its weakest link-more linking means more vulnerable. One malicious virus or stealth program spreads like herpes in a cathouse. I don’t know the answer to this problem in the age of the internet but I am not willingly going to allow my digital replicant to be pushed into the government houses of ill-repute!
The National (really International) ID schemes like Real ID and now, the Pass Act will link to our health records, banking records and nearly all of our daily transactions in time. Our most intimate personal identifiers, the actual measurements of our bodies-our biometrics, will be carried through these systems conveniently linked to a treasure trove of valuable data about each and every one of us.
If our records reside in disparate databases, accessed only by those with a legitimate need to know, for example insurance and doctors to our medical records. Financial agencies with our financial records etc, it seems like we would actually be better insulated against malicious hackers. Imagine if we accept Real ID and the verifying system is corrupted. With this ID being required for so many activities and transactions necessary for daily life, what would happen if it was
rejected or falsely flagged?
Such a system does not make us safer. I wish they would stop pushing this lie. It obviously offers attractive benefits to the bureaucrats for them to be so adamant that we accept the national ID, I am far from convinced.
This is just one of many of these kinds of attacks and is a harbinger of what is to come. Cyberspace is a new warfront and frankly, I prefer to stay off that battlefield.
AxXiom
WASHINGTON – The powerful attack that overwhelmed computers at U.S. and South Korean government agencies for days was even broader than initially realized, also targeting the White House, the Pentagon and the New York Stock Exchange.
Other targets of the attack included the National Security Agency, Homeland Security Department, State Department, the Nasdaq stock market and The Washington Post, according to an early analysis of the malicious software used in the attacks. Many of the organizations appeared to successfully blunt the sustained computer assaults.
The Associated Press obtained the target list from security experts analyzing the attacks. It was not immediately clear who might be responsible or what their motives were. South Korean intelligence officials believe the attacks were carried out by North Korea or pro-Pyongyang forces.
The attack was remarkably successful in limiting public access to victim Web sites, but internal e-mail systems are typically unaffected in such attacks. Some government Web sites — such as the Treasury Department, Federal Trade Commission and Secret Service — were still reporting problems days after the attack started during the July 4 holiday. South Korean Internet sites began experiencing problems Tuesday.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, the nation’s principal spy agency, told a group of South Korean lawmakers Wednesday it believes that North Korea or North Korean sympathizers in the South were behind the attacks, according to an aide to one of the lawmakers briefed on the information.
read more;
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090708/ap_on_go_ot/us_us_cyber_attack
Federal Web sites knocked out by cyber attack
LOLITA C. BALDOR
July 8, 2009 – 11:35AM
A widespread and unusually resilient computer attack that began July 4 knocked out the Web sites of several government agencies, including some that are responsible for fighting cyber crime, The Associated Press has learned.
The Treasury Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission and Transportation Department Web sites were all down at varying points over the holiday weekend and into this week, according to officials inside and outside the government. Some of the sites were still experiencing problems Tuesday evening.
Federal government officials refused to publicly discuss any details of the cyber attack, and would only generally acknowledge that it occurred. It was not clear whether other government sites also were attacked.
[. . .]
The Homeland Security Department confirmed that officials had received reports of “malicious Web activity” and they were investigating the matter, but had no further comment. Two government officials acknowledged that the Treasury and Secret Service sites were brought down, and said the agencies were working with their Internet service provider to resolve the problem.
Ben Rushlo, director of Internet technologies at Keynote Systems, called it a “massive outage” and said problems with the Transportation Department site began Saturday and continued until Monday, while the FTC site was down Sunday and Monday.
[. . .]The Homeland Security Department, meanwhile, says there were 5,499 known breaches of U.S. government computers in 2008, up from 3,928 the previous year, and just 2,172 in 2006
Read More
The AP Reoprts;
3 hours ago
A look at some known international cyber attacks in recent years:
_In April, a former U.S. government official said that spies had hacked into the U.S. electric grid and left behind computer programs that would let them disrupt service, though it was not clear when the breach occurred. The official said the intrusion was “almost without a doubt” done by state sponsors.
_In March, a Canadian research group concluded that hackers likely based in China stole sensitive information from thousands of hard drives worldwide and hacked into the computer system of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet. China denied any involvement.
_ In March, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, said his office computers were hacked three times by “cyber-invaders thought to be inside China.” Nelson, a member of the Senate’s Intelligence, Armed Services and Finance committees, described one of the incidents as serious, but said he did not believe any sensitive information was stolen.
_ In 2008, Georgian government and corporate Web sites began to see “denial of service” attacks just ahead of the outbreak of war with Russia. The Kremlin denied involvement, but a group of independent Western computer experts traced domain names and Web site registration data to conclude that the Russian top security and military intelligence agencies were involved.
_ In 2007, alleged Russian hackers crippled government and corporate computer networks in Estonia for nearly three weeks following deadly riots that were sparked by the relocation of a Soviet war memorial.
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