Blown To Bits

Chinese hackers?

Thursday, July 10th, 2008 by Harry Lewis
Cancer-related norvasc for sale anemia is manageable, and many people see improvements with appropriate order cialis treatment and cancer management. Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is another type of buy celebrex generic the disease that originates from the cells lining the ducts buy cheap amikacin online of the pancreas. PPL is a rare condition, and the buy azor once daily specific subtype of lymphoma may influence survival rates, making it buy cheap buy online usa challenging to provide precise figures. If a drug requires prior atrovent prescription authorization but you start treatment without the prior approval, you dexamethasone sale could pay the full cost of the medication. To find order discount buy side effects effects out how much Lynparza will cost you with insurance, contact approved canadian pharmacy your insurance provider, pharmacist, or doctor. To learn more about buy celebrex online the cost of Lynparza compared with other treatments for your find cheap viagra online condition, talk with your doctor, pharmacist, or insurance provider. You find viagra should always consult your doctor or another healthcare professional before generic asacol no prescription jelly taking any medication. If you have questions about drinking alcohol while.

Politico reports today on Congressional efforts at data security. The story is prompted by claims from Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) and Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) that computers used by their staffers had been “hacked” by the Chinese government because the good congressmen supported the speech rights of Chinese citizens.

Unfortunately, as far as I could tell, the congressmen did not provide any forensic evidence about what the “hack” was or where it came from. These are not trivial matters; even if an attack looks like it is coming from China, that could be a spoof — the actual attacker might be half a world away.

More importantly, I suspect this incident reveals more about the sloppiness of congressional offices than about the sophistication of Chinese hackers. I don’t doubt that the Chinese are sophisticated, but even sophisticated criminals prefer soft targets to hard ones. Was it necessary for multiple staffers to have sensitive data, unencrypted, on their computers? Had any of the staffers opened any questionable attachments or gone to any virus-infected sites lately? Note that Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s recent identity theft happened because a staffer at an investment firm used the same computer for client records and music file sharing. Share one file, share ’em all.

The bad guys are out there, for sure, but when a Congressmen starts creating an international incident out of something that happened two years ago and won’t disclose the details, remember Pogo’s profundity, which I quote in the Politico article: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Comments are closed.