OPM Data Breach - Whitehouse Petition - Help Wanted

Thu Jun 18 01:23:29 UTC 2015

This is the government... you have to put on your bizarro-economics and
bizarro-ethics glasses for the State to make sense.

It does not operate like a market.  Failure results in people being
shuffled around, and larger budgets. Failure justifies more control and
power.  People get taken down for political reasons, not based on a lack of
ability or lack of virtue.

I would hope this measure succeeds and to see something meaningful come out
of it, I just don't see it happening.

On Wed, Jun 17, 2015 at 8:56 PM Ronald F. Guilmette <rfg at tristatelogic.com>
wrote:

>
> My apologies in advance to any here who might feel that this is off
> topic... I don't personally believe that it is.  Frankly, I don't
> know of that many mailing lists where the subscribers are likely to
> care as much about network security (and/or the lack thereof) as the
> membership of this list does.
>
> By now, most of you will have read about the massive federal data breach
> at the U.S. Government's Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and also
> the fact that (by OPM's own preliminary estimates) this massive data breach
> affects at least four million federal government employees... but perhaps
> as many as 14 million current and former employees.  However as this
> story is still evolving, even as we speak, you may perhaps not be familiar
> with the following additional important facts that have just come out:
>
>     *)  In addition to ordinary government personel records, including
>         the usual kinds of frequently-hacked personal information (e.g.
>         social security numbers), an as-yet undetermined number of highly
>         detailed 127-page government security clearance forms (SF86)
>         containing vast and intimate details of virtually every aspect
>         of the lives of essentially EVERYONE who has applied for or been
>         granted a government security clearance at any time within THE
>         PAST 30 YEARS have also been hacked/leaked.
>
>         (Experts seem to agree that this security clearance data
> constitutes
>         and absolute gold mine and treasure trove of information for
> foreign
>         intelligence services, opening up vast possibilities for phishing,
>         blackmail, and on and on.)
>
>     *)  The Director of the Office of Personnel Management, Ms. Katherine
>         Archueta was warned, repeatedly, and over several years, by her
>         own department's Inspector General (IG) that many of OPM's systems
>         were insecure and should be taken out of service.  Nontheless, as
>         reveled during congressional testimony yesterday, she overruled
>         and ignored this advice and kept the systems online.
>
> Given the above facts, I've just started a new Whitehouse Petition, asking
> that the director of OPM, Ms. Archueta, be fired for gross incompetence.
> I _do_ understand that the likelihood of anyone ever getting fired for
> incompetence anywhere within the Washington D.C. Beltway is very much of
> a long shot, based on history, but I nontheless feel that as a U.S.
> citizen and taxpayer, I at least want to make my opinion of this matter
> known to The Powers That Be.
>
> I *really* would like some help from members of this list on this endeavor.
> In particular, if you agree, I'd appreciate it if you would sign my
> petition,
> and, whether you agree or not, I sure would appreciate it if you would all
> share the following URL widely:
>
>
> https://petitions.whitehouse.gov//petition/immediately-fire-office-personnel-managements-director-katherine-archueta-gross-incompetence
>
> Note that Whitehouse petitions do not even get properly or completely
> published on the Whitehouse web site until such time as they receive at
> least 150 signatures.  I am hoping that members of this (NANOG) mailing
> list will help me to get past that threshold.
>
> Thanks for your attention.
>
>
> Regards,
> rfg
>
-- 
Tyler W. Mills
Infrastructure and Network Engineer
Atlanta,  GA.