3 ms·

Secrecy mounts over White House cybersecurity staff shakeup

58 points by cpeterso 10y ago

chha 10y ago
Nothing to worry about; Trump has a son that knows lots about "cyber"!
- killjoywashere 10y ago
  would the mods please delete chha's comment (parent)? Keep the kid out of it.
  - khazhou 10y ago
    Here is a transcript of our President's statement on cybersecurity during the debates: "I have a son. He’s 10 years old. He has computers. He is so good with these computers, it’s unbelievable. The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough. And maybe it’s hardly do-able. But I will say, we are not doing the job we should be doing, but that’s true throughout our whole governmental society. We have so many things that we have to do better, Lester and certainly cyber is one of them.”
  - imglorp 10y ago
    A agree that comment is relevant to the discussion. It demonstrates the mindset of the person selecting the staff.
  - Bud 10y ago
    If you want to play moderator, how about you use your real account instead of using a throwaway?
  - pcl 10y ago
    I upvoted the parent because I agree with his sentiment -- we shouldn't pick on Trump's son. khazhou's quote puts the GP in context, however; this is not a critique of any of Trump's kids, but rather of Trump's fundamental lack of awareness of the complexities of the cybersecurity space.
    - vkou 10y ago
      Unfortunately, Trump was the one who brought his son's computer expertise to the conversation.
    - prawn 10y ago
      Was Trump really saying that his kid can solve cybersecurity issues, or is he just unable to deliver an ad hoc speech without barely relevant rambling?
      - pcl 10y ago
        To be honest, I'm not sure which of those two options is preferable.
  - guelo 10y ago
    It's not a comment about the kid, it's about Trump's ridiculousness. Though I do think that this kind of sarcastic humor is not appropriate on HN.
- sctb 10y ago
  Please comment civilly and substantively on Hacker News or not at all. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
mjevans 10y ago
I think I'd rather Trump just rolled the Whitehouse back to Battle Star Galactia feeling hardlines and no-microprocessors period level security. You know, classic, tangible, "built to last" stuff. It would be amazing if they went back to typewriters as being 'unhackable' devices.
- DanBC 10y ago
  > It would be amazing if they went back to typewriters as being 'unhackable' devices. Considerable amounts of money and expertise have been thrown at sound analysis, and it's used in a range of situations from telling what submarine is in your waters to knowing what a typist is typing. And eventually people put parallel ports on typewriters because typists are more expensive than a parallel port, at which point you've got a cumbersome but very hackable printer. Researchers recover typed text from audio recording: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7448976 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7448976 Acoustic snooping: https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2005/09/09/acoustic-snooping-typed-information/ https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2005/09/09/acoustic-snooping-t... And Germany was thinking of trying exactly this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/10968316/Germanys-plan-to-take-on-NSA-Block-eavesdroppers-with-classical-music-and-use-typewriters.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/109...
  - razvanh 10y ago
    An interesting tangent: sound can be recovered from visual information too: Algorithm recovers speech from the vibrations of a potato-chip bag filmed through soundproof glass - http://news.mit.edu/2014/algorithm-recovers-speech-from-vibrations-0804 http://news.mit.edu/2014/algorithm-recovers-speech-from-vibr...
- emidln 10y ago
  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10968604/The-NSA-can-hack-your-typewriter-just-as-easily-as-a-PC-but-it-probably-doesnt-need-to.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10968604/The-NSA-... The gist is that typewriters aren't really that much more safe. You still have a weak human element, and it's also easy to bug a typewriting machine.
cyberferret 10y ago
Not a fan of Trump's policies, actions or attitudes here, but this 'article' wasn't much more than a series of rumours, guesses and third had accounts gathered together on one page. One could infer many things from this story, and that does a disservice to the journalism profession. If providers are serious about stamping out the constant cries of 'fake news', I would like to think that articles be more well researched, and solid & verifiable proof of evidence is found, and presented in a way that cannot be refuted or challenged.
- simplicio 10y ago
  Really? Other than two sentences from an anonymous source, everything in the article is verifiable. The story itself is fairly opaque, but then that's what the article is reporting, that it isn't clear why the CISO left, and that neither the WH or the man himself will comment. They don't offer any guesses, and even the headline stresses that they don't know.
pcl 10y ago
This story has been flagged, and I think that's a shame. I understand the concerns about turning HN into another political discussion rant forum. However, this is relevant news to this audience, for two reasons: - It's about the CISO of a high-profile establishment, and his team. - National cybersecurity policies are likely to impact the decisions that the software and hardware folks of us will make over the coming years.

58 points by cpeterso 10y ago

chha 10y ago

Nothing to worry about; Trump has a son that knows lots about "cyber"!

killjoywashere 10y ago
would the mods please delete chha's comment (parent)? Keep the kid out of it.
- khazhou 10y ago
  Here is a transcript of our President's statement on cybersecurity during the debates: "I have a son. He’s 10 years old. He has computers. He is so good with these computers, it’s unbelievable. The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough. And maybe it’s hardly do-able. But I will say, we are not doing the job we should be doing, but that’s true throughout our whole governmental society. We have so many things that we have to do better, Lester and certainly cyber is one of them.”
- imglorp 10y ago
  A agree that comment is relevant to the discussion. It demonstrates the mindset of the person selecting the staff.
- Bud 10y ago
  If you want to play moderator, how about you use your real account instead of using a throwaway?
- pcl 10y ago
  I upvoted the parent because I agree with his sentiment -- we shouldn't pick on Trump's son. khazhou's quote puts the GP in context, however; this is not a critique of any of Trump's kids, but rather of Trump's fundamental lack of awareness of the complexities of the cybersecurity space.
  - vkou 10y ago
    Unfortunately, Trump was the one who brought his son's computer expertise to the conversation.
  - prawn 10y ago
    Was Trump really saying that his kid can solve cybersecurity issues, or is he just unable to deliver an ad hoc speech without barely relevant rambling?
    - pcl 10y ago
      To be honest, I'm not sure which of those two options is preferable.
- guelo 10y ago
  It's not a comment about the kid, it's about Trump's ridiculousness. Though I do think that this kind of sarcastic humor is not appropriate on HN.
sctb 10y ago
Please comment civilly and substantively on Hacker News or not at all. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

mjevans 10y ago

I think I'd rather Trump just rolled the Whitehouse back to Battle Star Galactia feeling hardlines and no-microprocessors period level security. You know, classic, tangible, "built to last" stuff. It would be amazing if they went back to typewriters as being 'unhackable' devices.

DanBC 10y ago
> It would be amazing if they went back to typewriters as being 'unhackable' devices. Considerable amounts of money and expertise have been thrown at sound analysis, and it's used in a range of situations from telling what submarine is in your waters to knowing what a typist is typing. And eventually people put parallel ports on typewriters because typists are more expensive than a parallel port, at which point you've got a cumbersome but very hackable printer. Researchers recover typed text from audio recording: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7448976 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7448976 Acoustic snooping: https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2005/09/09/acoustic-snooping-typed-information/ https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2005/09/09/acoustic-snooping-t... And Germany was thinking of trying exactly this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/10968316/Germanys-plan-to-take-on-NSA-Block-eavesdroppers-with-classical-music-and-use-typewriters.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/109...
- razvanh 10y ago
  An interesting tangent: sound can be recovered from visual information too: Algorithm recovers speech from the vibrations of a potato-chip bag filmed through soundproof glass - http://news.mit.edu/2014/algorithm-recovers-speech-from-vibrations-0804 http://news.mit.edu/2014/algorithm-recovers-speech-from-vibr...
emidln 10y ago
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10968604/The-NSA-can-hack-your-typewriter-just-as-easily-as-a-PC-but-it-probably-doesnt-need-to.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10968604/The-NSA-... The gist is that typewriters aren't really that much more safe. You still have a weak human element, and it's also easy to bug a typewriting machine.

cyberferret 10y ago

Not a fan of Trump's policies, actions or attitudes here, but this 'article' wasn't much more than a series of rumours, guesses and third had accounts gathered together on one page. One could infer many things from this story, and that does a disservice to the journalism profession. If providers are serious about stamping out the constant cries of 'fake news', I would like to think that articles be more well researched, and solid & verifiable proof of evidence is found, and presented in a way that cannot be refuted or challenged.

simplicio 10y ago
Really? Other than two sentences from an anonymous source, everything in the article is verifiable. The story itself is fairly opaque, but then that's what the article is reporting, that it isn't clear why the CISO left, and that neither the WH or the man himself will comment. They don't offer any guesses, and even the headline stresses that they don't know.

pcl 10y ago

This story has been flagged, and I think that's a shame. I understand the concerns about turning HN into another political discussion rant forum. However, this is relevant news to this audience, for two reasons: - It's about the CISO of a high-profile establishment, and his team. - National cybersecurity policies are likely to impact the decisions that the software and hardware folks of us will make over the coming years.