Brickbat: The First Line of Defense

Zim235/Dreamstime

The FBI did not notify numerous U.S. officials that Russian hackers were trying to break into their email accounts. Many of those officials found out only recently, years after the FBI first learned they had been targeted, when reporters with the Associated Press told them.

Comments

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

Yep, budget cuts are a bitch. If you think this is bad, I heard some field agents got issued Airsoft Glock 18s to save cash.

[Fist of Etiquette]

But the Army veteran said he didn't realize his personal emails were "flapping in the breeze" until a journalist phoned him two months later.

"The fact that a reporter told me about DCLeaks kind of makes me sad," he said. "I wish it had been a government source."

No one likes to learn through accidental outsourcing that privatization of government services works better.

[ALWAYS RIGHT]

What works better is competent management. A lot of FBI people should be fired. Do you actually think that bureaucrats would do better because they are entrenched in a private corporation? By the way, President Trump has the duty to manage the FBI. That is in his job description. What is not in his job description is passing tax reform laws or any other kind of laws. That is the job of Congress. While I am at it, somebody should have told that to Libertarian darling, Rand Paul, when he was campaigning for President.

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

"Do you actually think that bureaucrats would do better because they are entrenched in a private corporation?"

No shit, AmSock.

[Jerryskids]

Equifax also said in a document sent to the US Securities and Exchange commission that it is the subject of 240 class-action lawsuits in the US and Canada as well as more than 50 investigations in the US, Canada and Great Britain.

It did not quantify the possible financial impact of the lawsuits.

Equifax interim CEO Paulino do Rego Barros said that following the security breach, its senior leadership will not receive bonuses this year.

Its CEO Richard Smith resigned in late September, as did two other Equifax executives, its chief information officer and chief security officer.

No accountability whatsoever in the private sector
.

[ALWAYS RIGHT]

What you say about Equifax is true and important. This wasn't true with Yahoo, General Electric, etc. Those who led their corporations into ruin received hundreds of millions for their incompetence. Private corporation officials make many millions of dollars. This isn't true for the public sector, except for college sports coaches.

[Inigo Montoya]

Correction: only the very highest-level execs at those corporations get millions for screwing up. All the lower-level employees just lose their jobs without any nice bonuses or fanfare. You might even see some of them cashiering in a store or gas station a year later, once they realize their corporate gig might not be easy to replace.

And I highly doubt only sports team coaches make millions among the public sector. All the higher-ups there always seem to bank a lot of money that goes well beyond their already inflated salaries.

Can you name one ex-pres or ex-governor or ex-congressperson who ended up taking an ordinary job after their career ended? No matter how disgraced their terms in office, they always seem to to just fine. More than fine, actually. Kind of suspicious, if you ask me.

[Fuck you, Shikha (Nunya)]

Hey, dumbass, dis you notice anything about those companies you just mentioned? That's right, they are some of the biggest cronies out there. They and the government have each others noses so far up the others ass there's no way to see who exactly is to blame.

As for your attack on Paul, tell me how many things your martyr, president Obama, directly or indirectly stick his nose in that are reserved for Congress? Please group them category starting with agreements (actually called treaties, but the media was successful in changing the lexicon).

[ALWAYS RIGHT]

Can you articulate a counter-point? Why is Obama mentioned? Sober up and try again.

[Don't look at me.]

Everyone in government is corrupt, that's why you love them.

[I am the 0.000000013%]

"Those who led their corporations into ruin".

The private sector has consequences... Every person that invested in these companies and allowed rewarding bad performance to persist lost money. I would guess that was a painful enough lesson to not let it happen again.

On the other hand, the federal government just keeps getting bigger and bigger. The reward for failure is a bigger budget.

[Jerryskids]

Jesus Fucking Christ - there's Barney Frank on CNN arguing that the whole reason Dodd-Frank set up the CFPB the way it did was to "shield it from the normal political process" without mentioning that the "normal political process" is otherwise referred to as "the Constitution". And there's Chris Cuomo cutting to the chase with an assertion that the "whole issue" is whether the CFPB is doing a good job or not. No, the whole issue is whether the executive powers are vested in the President and the spending power in the Congress. The CFPB fails on both counts if the President can't fire the agency head and Congress can't cut off their funds.

[Inigo Montoya]

When Obama was in office, and some kind of embarrassing news came out and one of the few non-fawning journalists would ask him about it, his answer would always be that he himself had just read about it in the paper or seen it on the news.

Some people, myself included, were always skeptical about Obama's excuse. Well, now it turns out he must have been completely truthful about never being informed of anything by these incompetent government employees.

[Old Mexican's Speedos]

Re: Inigo Montoya,

The P...y Grabber-in-chief himself gets his policy briefings from Fox & Friends. I believe now that presidents were and are all innocent bystanders.

[Fuck you, Shikha (Nunya)]

Two words. Plausible deniability.

[Inigo Montoya]

Just thought of a great Christmas gift idea for all those who need one: a new, state-of-art sarcasm meter.

[Bubba Jones]

Just finished "the art of the deal" and he tells a very sad story about NYC and renovating Wollman Ice Rink. Tldr NYC spent 6 years, millions of dollars and failed. Trump did it in 4 months.

The city planner who failed got a promotion.

[Citizen X - #6]

Yeah, well, Trump got promoted all the way to the White House, so i guess everybody wins.

[Bubba Jones]

Serious question. What would you have in your private email that would interest the Russian government?

[Citizen X - #6]

Important Nigerian financial contacts?

[Conchfritters]

What does the entire world have in their private email that would interest the NSA?

[Citizen X - #6]

Many of those officials found out only recently, years after the FBI first learned they had been targeted, when reporters with the Associated Press told them.

Hey, if that way of finding out important stuff is good enough for Barack Obama, it's good enough for lesser officials!

[Rich]

The FBI failed to notify scores of U.S. officials that Russian hackers were trying to break into their personal Gmail accounts despite having evidence for at least a year that the targets were in the Kremlin's crosshairs, The Associated Press has found.

In a way, this is total non-news. Aren't hackers, Russian or other, always *trying* to break into *lots* of stuff?

[John]

Is there anything other than entrapping people into joining fake terrorism plots and distributing child porn that the FBI doesn't fuck up?

[Conchfritters]

I checked google and couldn't find anything.

[ALWAYS RIGHT]

The FBI does a lot more bad than good. Any survey will tell you that the sheeple believe that the FBI is protecting them and that life would be safer without that technicality called the Bill of Rights.

[Bra Ket]

you're not even trying.

[Bra Ket]

"...Russian hackers were trying to break into their email accounts."

Is there actual news anywhere in this?

Is it that govt officials need a heads-up or else they don't expect spies of a rival country to "try" to get info from them?

"...a Russian government-aligned cyberespionage group..."

What the hell does this even mean?

Sounds like someone is not sure enough of the facts to stick their neck out, but wants to imply them anyway.

But I suppose there's also a solid possibility that they are simply being vague and cagey so as not to expose our spies who discovered this program when they hacked the Kremlin.