In Wake Of Hack, No Federal Background Checks

[HardOCP News]

It's a good thing those pesky little things called federal background checks aren't important.

Three weeks after U.S. authorities determined foreign hackers may have stolen sensitive government records tied to tens of millions of people, the Office of Personnel Management has now shut down a system tied to the breach, essentially bringing to a halt background checks for new federal employees, contractors and others.

 

[westrock2000]

Guys, you ALL need to watch this testimony that Katherine Archuleta the Director of Office of Personnel Management gave during a hearing.

It is shocking that people like this are able to keep their position. It's not the first time we have seen directors talk like this. The IRS wasn't much different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ass73n7lH0c#t=1h03m11s

But please, listen to this woman talk. It's disgusting.

 

[carlbme]

Considering the system that they are talking about and the crazy sensitive data that it holds, it's good that they took it offline. Get it patched or replaced instead of leaving it up for possibly more intrusions into it or other systems that it connects to.

I'm sure they'll just go to another system or paper/fax machines.

 

[DooLocsta]

Guys, you ALL need to watch this testimony that Katherine Archuleta the Director of Office of Personnel Management gave during a hearing.

It is shocking that people like this are able to keep their position. It's not the first time we have seen directors talk like this. The IRS wasn't much different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ass73n7lH0c#t=1h03m11s

But please, listen to this woman talk. It's disgusting.

WOW! All I can say.

 

[GaryJohnson]

Guys, you ALL need to watch this testimony that Katherine Archuleta the Director of Office of Personnel Management gave during a hearing.

It is shocking that people like this are able to keep their position. It's not the first time we have seen directors talk like this. The IRS wasn't much different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ass73n7lH0c#t=1h03m11s

But please, listen to this woman talk. It's disgusting.

She certainly articulates it very poorly, but the sum of what she is saying is basically "we couldn't shut it down because it would bring to a halt background checks for new federal employees, contractors and others." We can't ever let that happen - oh wait.

It sounds like she's reading canned responses someone else wrote about something she doesn't really understand in a way that she seemed to think beforehand would be professional and convincing but ultimately doesn't hold up to any scrutiny whatsoever. She does seem to try to defer to someone else quite a few times; someone who probably knows what's actually going on. But rather than let that person speak Mr. Angry continues to pick apart the appointed figurehead who has presented a weak flank. WTG Mr. Angry.

As to why the system wasn't secure in the first place or why the work to make it secure wasn't done more quickly I can give you the short obvious answer: because money. And why wasn't there enough money: because congress. Specifically some of the very same congressional committee's that Mr. Angry is a member of.

 

[[Tripod]MajorPayne]

Guys, you ALL need to watch this testimony that Katherine Archuleta the Director of Office of Personnel Management gave during a hearing.

It is shocking that people like this are able to keep their position. It's not the first time we have seen directors talk like this. The IRS wasn't much different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ass73n7lH0c#t=1h03m11s

But please, listen to this woman talk. It's disgusting.

She can't even read off the prepared statements correctly... I'm sure this is a trying time for her organization, and I'm sure it's a high pressure scenario to be grilled by a panel, but these are normal job functions for a high level management position within the federal government, and anyone whose title is "Director" should be able to give an account of the functions of their organization.

Frankly, it's embarrassing to see the kinds of people we end up with in these managerial positions.

Chairman - "Why wasn't this sensitive information encrypted?"

Director (looking down, reading from statement) - "Encryption is one of the valuable tools... (blah blah blah)"

Chairman - "WHY wasn't it encrypted"

Director - (still reading from statement)

Chairman - "We didn't call you here to have you read statements. WHY was this information not encrypted?"

Director - (no response)

Phenomenal.

 

[sean.b]

there's so much stupid in this video that it's sickening. the fact she's able to smirk, and the fact that both she and the woman after her were both acting as though they're totally innocent and indignant that they had to answer anything, as though they were interrupted from fighting the good fight that they had no hope of winning.

As somebody who's info was stolen - and btw, SF86 includes ALL FAMILY MEMBERS INCLUDING DECEASED info, down to address and social security number for all of them, and as somebody who's done security for several gov agencies, I can tell you it's hit or miss. It's either wildly secure, or easier to steal than a CD from walmart. And saying that isnt fucking classified. The fact she hid behind "discussing that in a classified environment" is as dumb as the shit I've seen guys pull at bars when they say "I cant talk about that, it's classified" to try to impress a girl.

All I took away from this was a bunch of people who should but will never be held accountable were given scripts and told "lets go in there with these pre-canned responses and we'll be fine."

 

[gxp500]

Guys, you ALL need to watch this testimony that Katherine Archuleta the Director of Office of Personnel Management gave during a hearing.

It is shocking that people like this are able to keep their position. It's not the first time we have seen directors talk like this. The IRS wasn't much different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ass73n7lH0c#t=1h03m11s

But please, listen to this woman talk. It's disgusting.

Comedy gold, i hope every agency is run like this and gets hacked.

 

[jojo69]

you're drunk government

go home

 

[auntjemima]

Saving this for comedy gold.

 

[Mchart]

Anyone who has worked at decently higher levels of any government organization will know that the majority of those in leadership/decision making positions are worthless. These people worm their way through the system and are good at connection building.

 

[NickJames]

Sony gave us 5 years of identity theft protection during their hack. The government is giving me 8 months. It's such a joke the way they handle things. My co-workers are rightly pissed at the way they have been handling the situation.

 

[sfsuphysics]

It sounds like she's reading canned responses someone else wrote about something she doesn't really understand in a way that she seemed to think beforehand would be professional and convincing but ultimately doesn't hold up to any scrutiny whatsoever.

Uh no kidding she is. If I'd had to hazard a guess I'd say 90% of these politicians and aides and "assignees" don't know shit about the technology rules they're talking about, or making laws about. They have people who know this shit, but these people are usually too busy to do any work on their own and often get the cliff notes version or simply have someone else write responses to various potential questions.

Politicians are not smart people, duh!

 

[Cerulean]

Guys, you ALL need to watch this testimony that Katherine Archuleta the Director of Office of Personnel Management gave during a hearing.

It is shocking that people like this are able to keep their position. It's not the first time we have seen directors talk like this. The IRS wasn't much different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ass73n7lH0c#t=1h03m11s

But please, listen to this woman talk. It's disgusting.

Thanks for posting this link.

Comedy gold, and sickening.

Those are the responses of a lady who clearly doesn't belong in IT. It doesn't take decades to secure a system! If it took decades, then that means there's no such thing as security!! Does she really think everyone is that stupid?

 

[Mchart]

Sony gave us 5 years of identity theft protection during their hack. The government is giving me 8 months. It's such a joke the way they handle things. My co-workers are rightly pissed at the way they have been handling the situation.

IMO anyone actively serving / with an active clearance should be given free identity protection for life at this point.

 

[cyclone3d]

Doers anybody find it disturbing that there aren't going to be any background checks for the time being?

I see bad, bad, bad things happening because of this.

The whole place could be crawling with people planted from other governments and even terror groups.

Right now I am just sitting back and watching it all burn.

 

[Grahamkracka]

Guys, you ALL need to watch this testimony that Katherine Archuleta the Director of Office of Personnel Management gave during a hearing.

It is shocking that people like this are able to keep their position. It's not the first time we have seen directors talk like this. The IRS wasn't much different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ass73n7lH0c#t=1h03m11s

But please, listen to this woman talk. It's disgusting.

There is NOTHING expressly classified about this. Those of us that have worked for the government have been given most of the info he was asking for...in a unclassified setting.

 

[TechLarry]

This could be an excuse to hold up everything from Gun Purchases to Concealed Carry licenses everywhere, if it's the system they use for those items.

 

[TechLarry]

Guys, you ALL need to watch this testimony that Katherine Archuleta the Director of Office of Personnel Management gave during a hearing.

It is shocking that people like this are able to keep their position. It's not the first time we have seen directors talk like this. The IRS wasn't much different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ass73n7lH0c#t=1h03m11s

But please, listen to this woman talk. It's disgusting.

The amount of incompetence presented there is mind blowing.

She shouldn't be allowed to run a school cafeteria.

 

[IdiotInCharge]

This could be an excuse to hold up everything from Gun Purchases to Concealed Carry licenses everywhere, if it's the system they use for those items.

It's not- this is for security clearances, and the two systems never touch...

Which makes this considerably worse, given the amount of information one has to release to the government for those clearances to be adjudicated.

 

[Weenis]

This could be an excuse to hold up everything from Gun Purchases to Concealed Carry licenses everywhere, if it's the system they use for those items.

It's not, that's the FBI's system.

 

[Weenis]

It's not- this is for security clearances, and the two systems never touch...

Which makes this considerably worse, given the amount of information one has to release to the government for those clearances to be adjudicated.

The worst part is the fact that the clearance forms have your family member's addresses names etc... So anyone with that data can cross reference that with training data acquired and use it to strong arm people with classified info.

This is a real big shit show.

 

[Dead Parrot]

The worst part is the fact that the clearance forms have your family member's addresses names etc... So anyone with that data can cross reference that with training data acquired and use it to strong arm people with classified info.

This is a real big shit show.

Makes it much easier for foreign operatives to do something like the following:
"Mr Smith, I understand that your son Johnny is having trouble repaying his student loans. If you will obtain a copy of document A124/34-7, your son's GoFundMe campaign will be fully funded...."

 

[infinite mind]

I'm sure it's significant the youtube link starts with =Ass

 

[Retronym]

 

[sean.b]

Makes it much easier for foreign operatives to do something like the following:
"Mr Smith, I understand that your son Johnny is having trouble repaying his student loans. If you will obtain a copy of document A124/34-7, your son's GoFundMe campaign will be fully funded...."

this. its not just the ssn of the 14 million, but also the addresses and ssn of all of their family members. i'd bet my life that 14 million was the employees and not the affected, because that'd be 14 million * (1 spouse + all family members). i'd bet anything its well in excess of 50 million.

50 fucking million. as in the population of approximately the top 50 cities in the country combined. dozens of people should be in Leavenworth for this, but i'd wager virtually nothing comes of it except for whatever the people who have the info use it for.

 

[sliverjazz]

.GOV is broken...

 

[rivertown_rat]

Somebody really said the problem is that they didn't have enough money to encrypt their data? Really? The Federal Government is literally rolling in money. There's so much of it they are busy 100% of the time coming up with ways to spend it. It's apparent the person that said this has never worked on a government contract. The amount of money wasted is shocking. And honestly, it does not take much money or time to properly encrypt a database. The people running our government are simply incompetent.

 

[braamer]

IMO anyone actively serving / with an active clearance should be given free identity protection for life at this point.

I got a year and a half of identity protection, plus a $1M insurance policy for life.

 

[westrock2000]

50 fucking million. as in the population of approximately the top 50 cities in the country combined. dozens of people should be in Leavenworth for this, but i'd wager virtually nothing comes of it except for whatever the people who have the info use it for.

Well just look at the IRS. Nothing is going to happen to those people except for maybe some poor IT fall guy. Yet the federal government specifically has laws about data retention when it comes to the private sector. Laws that the IRS can and will hold YOU accountable for.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarbanes–Oxley_Act

 

[FM 3370]

Guys, you ALL need to watch this testimony that Katherine Archuleta the Director of Office of Personnel Management gave during a hearing.

It is shocking that people like this are able to keep their position. It's not the first time we have seen directors talk like this. The IRS wasn't much different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ass73n7lH0c#t=1h03m11s

But please, listen to this woman talk. It's disgusting.

Woah, she is an ugly woman!

 

[braamer]

I got a year and a half of identity protection, plus a $1M insurance policy for life.

I was wrong. I get 18 months of identity protection, and a whole year of a $1M insurance policy.

BTW, the woman in that video was an idiot.

 

[Cerulean]

OPM director resigns

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...-news-that-hack-affected-21-5-million-people/

 

[c3141hf]

Guys, you ALL need to watch this testimony that Katherine Archuleta the Director of Office of Personnel Management gave during a hearing.

It is shocking that people like this are able to keep their position. It's not the first time we have seen directors talk like this. The IRS wasn't much different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ass73n7lH0c#t=1h03m11s

But please, listen to this woman talk. It's disgusting.

She was appointed because of her race, not because of her skills. All part of Obama's social engineering.

 

[twonunpackmule]

It's a good thing those pesky little things called federal background checks aren't important.

Good thing I got in when I did.

 

[jssaylor2007]

I once tried to get a job with TSA while in college. I remember the background check being insanely in-depth. The entire reason I didn't end up with the job was because the background check process took so long that by the time they called me (6 months later) confirming my background check cleared, my wife and I had decided to move back to Texas.