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Here's a summary of what foreign powers got access to: - identities of undercover operatives - personal identity data of everyone with a driver's licence - peo

Here's a summary of what foreign powers got access to: - identities of undercover operatives - personal identity data of everyone with a driver's licence - people with protected identities - location of all army vehicles - money transport vehicles - classified infrastructure information Even worse: when they realized they'd leaked photos, home addresses and SSNs of protected identities, they sent a clear text email asking the contractor to clear them from the database manually. <emotional rant> My country is a joke. SÄPO knew about this in 2015, and recommended against it, but the Transport Agency still went through with the deal. How they could even be allowed to do that is beyond me. The director general of the Transport Agency, and the person ultimately responsible for the leak, was fined a mere $8500 (which is half of what she allegedly would earn in a _month_) for leaking highly classified information to foreign powers - an act that would be punished as high treason in any sane country. Either she knew exactly what she was doing, meaning the Russians paid a meagre $8500 for full access to a database containing top secret information, or (more likely) she was just that stupid, meaning possibly hostile powers got this information for free. But hey, that's Sweden, where incompetent people become director generals of big government agencies, and any screw up they get caught with is excused by saying that you didn't know better. Here, Swedes believe that Trump is such a catastrophe, and wonder why Americans could vote for him. We should instead look at our own pathetic "feminist" government, and ask ourselves how and why we got here. But hey, luckily for everyone we don't have nukes. We'd probably accidentally give the launch codes to Saudi Arabia/Palestine, and respond by giving the person responsible for the leak a small fine while the rest of the world burned in the war that erupted after Israel got nuked. </rant>

cm2187 9y ago
I must say that if the data leak leads to the fall of the gouvernement, it will force everyone else to take it seriously. That would be a big advance to the credit of Sweden. (In most countries the gouvernement wouldn't fall for "so little")
rconti 9y ago
I'm not familiar with Sweden's "feminist" government. Can you help foreigners understand? Was it, for example, a matter of existing staff members hiring new ones based on gender rather than on competence? Any reading material on the matter? It sounds like it's a well-known political argument in Sweden, I just don't know the background.
- jjawssd 9y ago
  https://acidmuncher.wordpress.com/2017/02/08/feminist-trump-satire-goes-viral-but-the-feminist-is-a-massive-hypocrite/ https://acidmuncher.wordpress.com/2017/02/08/feminist-trump-...
  - Hasknewbie 9y ago
    TL;DR: Link is to a rambling blog article about a perceived slight (moving money from a 'foreign aid' budget to a 'refugees' one) that will have an unsubstantiated outcome (Sweden will accept only male refugees in the country), apparently based on a well-known falsehood ("most refugees are single adult males" [1]). Blog has articles such as "Sweden should have guns like Texas because ISIS!". Blog author is not Swedish but lives there. You gotta love how immigrants (who typically don't peep much and commit either the same level of or less crimes than natives [2]) are often accused of not integrating enough, while you can always find white immigrants like our blogger here ready to lecture their host country on how they should run themselves. I suspect some of the off-topic comments in this thread are because this is about Sweden, a country that has become the target of all sorts of fantasies by much of the Western far right. [1] http://www.snopes.com/refugee-invaders-meme/ http://www.snopes.com/refugee-invaders-meme/ [2] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00148-015-0543-2 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00148-015-0543-2
    - beagle3 9y ago
      Please note, though, that the snopes link only refutes a specific picture used as evidence, and only gives statistics with respect to Syrian refugees - which are probably the more (perhaps only) deserving of "refugee" status by UN definitions - so it does not, in fact, disprove that "most refugees are single adult males" - and in fact - especially in Sweden - they are. I quote from [0] which links to primary sources, including the swedish immigration authorities (which I cannot confirm because I can't read swedish): """ According to Swedish government statistics, as of the end of November, 71 percent of all applicants for asylum to Sweden in 2015 were male. More than 21 percent of all migrants to Sweden were classified as unaccompanied minors, representing more than half of all minor migrants to the country. For accompanied minors, the sex ratio was about 1.16 boys for every one girl. But for unaccompanied minors, the ratio was 11.3 boys for every one girl. In other words, the Swedish case confirms IOM’s statistic that more than 90 percent of unaccompanied minors are male. Indeed, on average, approximately 90 unaccompanied boys entered Sweden every single day in 2015, compared with eight unaccompanied girls. """ [0] http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/europe-refugees-migrant-crisis-men-213500 http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/europe-refuge...
rhblake 9y ago
Well, she was also fired (finally) and her career is finished. I agree it was monumentally stupid. But "punished as high treason"? Treason requires intent. She most certainly did not intend to be criminally disloyal to the country. Merely being ignorant and incompetent is not treason. This is a major fuckup but let's be real. Our country is a "joke"? I know complaining is a national sport in Sweden, much like in many other countries, and I can rage about plenty of idiotic things going on. But on the whole, things are in general pretty good, relative to most other countries in the world. Move elsewhere and you'll just find a different set of things to be mad about (perhaps more, perhaps less; and there's always a bunch of Swedish expats who complain that things don't work like in Sweden).
- staticelf 9y ago
  Wait what? She knew that was a possibility and that it is highly illegal and still she went through with it. I would say that is having intent if anything. I love my country but I think she should be punished a lot harder. Arkebusering på slottsgården. But since that will never happen, 12 years in jail is probably enough.
  - solnyshok 9y ago
    for those who does not speak swedish (like me). google translate says "firing squad in the courtyard"
    - staticelf 9y ago
      That was a joke though. :) And slottsgården is more like "courtyard of the castle"
      - Symbiote 9y ago
        "Castle courtyard" or "palace courtyard". Probably palace, since that's the fancier building with less physical defences in the construction.
  - 9y ago
unknown_apostle 9y ago
From elsewhere in Europe, but I hear your frustration.
HearMeRoar 9y ago
>Here, Swedes believe that Trump is such a catastrophe, and wonder why Americans could vote for him. We should instead look at our own pathetic "feminist" government, and ask ourselves how and why we got here. Swede here. I don't even know how many times I've thought and said these exact words. Spot on.
pop7 9y ago
Incompetence has no nationality
archevel 9y ago
I realy fail to see how being a "feminist" government has any bearing on the issue at hand. Sure the government screwed up, but the rant part just takes away from the valid points you've raised.
- bbotond 9y ago
  I think he means that the selection criterion to be in the government was conformance to fashionable ideologies instead of actual competence - but honestly, that is how politics works everywhere.
  - type0 9y ago
    But she wasn't a politician but a director of a government agency, that is why it's so dangerous wish pervasive ideologies (in this case socialist-feminist) they allow incompetent people to screw up badly and get away with it.
- xlocicicig 9y ago
  The screw-up was initiated by Alliansen (not the current government), by outsourcing this to IBM. I'm not saying current government are free of blame here, but please stop trying to fit this into a "feminist" argument.
  - Svenskunganka 9y ago
    How can this be Alliansens fault? It was the current government-assigned general director of the Transport Agency that knowingly broke the law. She was even informed by SÄPO (Swedish equivalent of MI5 or CIA) that what she's trying to do is illegal, but still went through with it. The problem here is not outsourcing, because it is completely legal to do so as long as the company outsourced to goes through with proper security checks and clearances. For example the servers has to be located in Sweden and that proper access permissions are set for the employees. Outsourcing can in some cases be a very good choice to improve efficiency of tax spending.
    - 9y ago
petters 9y ago
> leaking highly classified information to foreign powers - an act that would be punished as high treason in any sane country. If she had been convicted for intentionally leaking information to foreign powers for money, she would have been convicted for treason. But the prosecution could not find/show intent, so she was only convicted for incompetence.
BLanen 9y ago
This happens in every country in the world. Don't act like you're a special case.
xlocicicig 9y ago
Now, how do you fit feminism into this plot?
baalimago 9y ago
"location of all army vehicles" The defense minister has openly said that the "försvarsmakten"'s cars aren't listed in the STA's registers. I can't find a link to prove this but i think it was said in one of the press conference's
willvarfar 9y ago
I was with you for the first half, but the second half where you say the russians got stuff is silly and then the rant against 'feminist' government etc is just plain stupid.
- throwawaymanbot 9y ago
  hehe I agree. That poster went kind of bizarre there in the end. None of these things have anything to do with a Data breach. How weird they adopted white nationalist sentiments at the end..
- depressedpanda 9y ago
  One of the contractors who got access to the data was employed by the Serbian military for a decade. I suppose you are aware of the ties Serbia and its military has to Russia? It's not unprobable that this guy sold the information to Russia. Even if not, Sweden must treat a potential leak like this as a real leak, or else risk endangering their operatives. Oh, yeah. The leak is _still_ ongoing: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dn.se%2Fnyheter%2Fsverige%2Ftransportstyrelsens-gd-sakerheten-kan-garanteras-forst-i-host%2F https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u... More info here, with Google translated for your convenience: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2017/07/swedish-transport-agency-worst-known-governmental-leak-ever-is-slowly-coming-to-light/ https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2017/07/swedish-t...
litor 9y ago
That isn't really the full story. > Here's a summary of what foreign powers got access to: It's not been established that foreign powers got access to the data. It's considered a leak because confidential information is considered leaked as soon as it's not handled correctly. > Even worse: when they realized they'd leaked photos, home addresses and SSNs of protected identities, they sent a clear text email asking the contractor to clear them from the database manually. There were two leaks. One was the information not being handled correctly, the other was the disclosure of people with protected identities in the "car registry" to companies that would use the data to send advertisements to the owners. This wouldn't have included photos or SSNs. > SÄPO knew about this in 2015, and recommended against it, but the Transport Agency still went through with the deal. How they could even be allowed to do that is beyond me. They weren't really allowed, which is why the head of the agency was prosecuted. > Either she knew exactly what she was doing, meaning the Russians paid a meagre $8500 for full access to a database containing top secret information, or (more likely) she was just that stupid, meaning possibly hostile powers got this information for free. The investigation concluded that she was aware that she was breaking the law but not that the leak was intentional as such, therefor it was "willful negligence". > Here, Swedes believe that Trump is such a catastrophe, and wonder why Americans could vote for him. We should instead look at our own pathetic "feminist" government, and ask ourselves how and why we got here. That's silly. - IT operations used to be run by another government agency called The Transport Administration (vs. The Transport Agency). - The decision to outsource was done under the former government by the the former head of the agency in 2012. - The previous contract on IT operations was already cancelled, the staff was being let go, the facilities cleared and would no longer be available come January 2015. - The former head of the agency retired in February/March 2015, the deal with the IBM was concluded by the new head of the agency in April 2015. - The event is one in a long line of outsourcing and public-private partnership failures. Including the Public Employment Agency, Social Insurance Agency, Karolinska University Hospital etc. The only reason this outsourcing failure is big news is because the government is weak, "the alliance" in opposition is even weaker and there's an election next year. Anakata of The Pirate Bay fame hacked Logica (another consulting company) in 2012 accessing confidential data from multiple government agencies.
specialist 9y ago
Data breaches, loss of privacy are common, everywhere. The novel aspect here is this news wasn't buried. Yes, please be outraged. But please also realize its the norm. We (society) do not have the laws, rules, procedures, or technology to prevent or mitigate it. Edit: Just quickly read up on this incident. They did try to bury it. But I read one account that stated one the Pirate Bay guys daylighted the breach. Delicious irony. So this scandal is now at stage 4: Assign the blame. Next is stage 5: Rinse, lather, repeat.
depressedpanda 9y ago
For those of you who got triggered by "feminist", please do note the quotes. I.e., it's their claim, not mine[1]. I personally don't see that they've done much for gender equality, so they only make that claim because it's fashionable. In the end it doesn't matter how feminist a government is if it cannot properly rule a country, and their actions speak louder than empty words. What I personally find so galling about the whole debacle isn't that Maria Ågren wasn't punished enough, but the signals the state sends to the people. She got away with a slap on the wrist, and she will continue to earn $14 000/month in the forseeable future[2]. If someone becomes a director general of a state agency their resonsibilities and culpability should increase with the salary. Criminal incompetence is still criminal, and should be prosecuted. Instead, our government tried to bury the leak. [1]: http://www.government.se/government-policy/a-feminist-government/ http://www.government.se/government-policy/a-feminist-govern... [2]: https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/maria-agren-plockar-ut-lonen-som-vanligt https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/maria-agren-plockar-ut-lo...

cm2187 9y ago

I must say that if the data leak leads to the fall of the gouvernement, it will force everyone else to take it seriously. That would be a big advance to the credit of Sweden. (In most countries the gouvernement wouldn't fall for "so little")

rconti 9y ago

I'm not familiar with Sweden's "feminist" government. Can you help foreigners understand? Was it, for example, a matter of existing staff members hiring new ones based on gender rather than on competence? Any reading material on the matter? It sounds like it's a well-known political argument in Sweden, I just don't know the background.

jjawssd 9y ago
https://acidmuncher.wordpress.com/2017/02/08/feminist-trump-satire-goes-viral-but-the-feminist-is-a-massive-hypocrite/ https://acidmuncher.wordpress.com/2017/02/08/feminist-trump-...
- Hasknewbie 9y ago
  TL;DR: Link is to a rambling blog article about a perceived slight (moving money from a 'foreign aid' budget to a 'refugees' one) that will have an unsubstantiated outcome (Sweden will accept only male refugees in the country), apparently based on a well-known falsehood ("most refugees are single adult males" [1]). Blog has articles such as "Sweden should have guns like Texas because ISIS!". Blog author is not Swedish but lives there. You gotta love how immigrants (who typically don't peep much and commit either the same level of or less crimes than natives [2]) are often accused of not integrating enough, while you can always find white immigrants like our blogger here ready to lecture their host country on how they should run themselves. I suspect some of the off-topic comments in this thread are because this is about Sweden, a country that has become the target of all sorts of fantasies by much of the Western far right. [1] http://www.snopes.com/refugee-invaders-meme/ http://www.snopes.com/refugee-invaders-meme/ [2] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00148-015-0543-2 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00148-015-0543-2
  - beagle3 9y ago
    Please note, though, that the snopes link only refutes a specific picture used as evidence, and only gives statistics with respect to Syrian refugees - which are probably the more (perhaps only) deserving of "refugee" status by UN definitions - so it does not, in fact, disprove that "most refugees are single adult males" - and in fact - especially in Sweden - they are. I quote from [0] which links to primary sources, including the swedish immigration authorities (which I cannot confirm because I can't read swedish): """ According to Swedish government statistics, as of the end of November, 71 percent of all applicants for asylum to Sweden in 2015 were male. More than 21 percent of all migrants to Sweden were classified as unaccompanied minors, representing more than half of all minor migrants to the country. For accompanied minors, the sex ratio was about 1.16 boys for every one girl. But for unaccompanied minors, the ratio was 11.3 boys for every one girl. In other words, the Swedish case confirms IOM’s statistic that more than 90 percent of unaccompanied minors are male. Indeed, on average, approximately 90 unaccompanied boys entered Sweden every single day in 2015, compared with eight unaccompanied girls. """ [0] http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/europe-refugees-migrant-crisis-men-213500 http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/europe-refuge...

rhblake 9y ago

Well, she was also fired (finally) and her career is finished. I agree it was monumentally stupid. But "punished as high treason"? Treason requires intent. She most certainly did not intend to be criminally disloyal to the country. Merely being ignorant and incompetent is not treason. This is a major fuckup but let's be real. Our country is a "joke"? I know complaining is a national sport in Sweden, much like in many other countries, and I can rage about plenty of idiotic things going on. But on the whole, things are in general pretty good, relative to most other countries in the world. Move elsewhere and you'll just find a different set of things to be mad about (perhaps more, perhaps less; and there's always a bunch of Swedish expats who complain that things don't work like in Sweden).

staticelf 9y ago
Wait what? She knew that was a possibility and that it is highly illegal and still she went through with it. I would say that is having intent if anything. I love my country but I think she should be punished a lot harder. Arkebusering på slottsgården. But since that will never happen, 12 years in jail is probably enough.
- solnyshok 9y ago
  for those who does not speak swedish (like me). google translate says "firing squad in the courtyard"
  - staticelf 9y ago
    That was a joke though. :) And slottsgården is more like "courtyard of the castle"
    - Symbiote 9y ago
      "Castle courtyard" or "palace courtyard". Probably palace, since that's the fancier building with less physical defences in the construction.
- 9y ago

unknown_apostle 9y ago

From elsewhere in Europe, but I hear your frustration.

HearMeRoar 9y ago

>Here, Swedes believe that Trump is such a catastrophe, and wonder why Americans could vote for him. We should instead look at our own pathetic "feminist" government, and ask ourselves how and why we got here. Swede here. I don't even know how many times I've thought and said these exact words. Spot on.

pop7 9y ago

Incompetence has no nationality

archevel 9y ago

I realy fail to see how being a "feminist" government has any bearing on the issue at hand. Sure the government screwed up, but the rant part just takes away from the valid points you've raised.

bbotond 9y ago
I think he means that the selection criterion to be in the government was conformance to fashionable ideologies instead of actual competence - but honestly, that is how politics works everywhere.
- type0 9y ago
  But she wasn't a politician but a director of a government agency, that is why it's so dangerous wish pervasive ideologies (in this case socialist-feminist) they allow incompetent people to screw up badly and get away with it.
xlocicicig 9y ago
The screw-up was initiated by Alliansen (not the current government), by outsourcing this to IBM. I'm not saying current government are free of blame here, but please stop trying to fit this into a "feminist" argument.
- Svenskunganka 9y ago
  How can this be Alliansens fault? It was the current government-assigned general director of the Transport Agency that knowingly broke the law. She was even informed by SÄPO (Swedish equivalent of MI5 or CIA) that what she's trying to do is illegal, but still went through with it. The problem here is not outsourcing, because it is completely legal to do so as long as the company outsourced to goes through with proper security checks and clearances. For example the servers has to be located in Sweden and that proper access permissions are set for the employees. Outsourcing can in some cases be a very good choice to improve efficiency of tax spending.
  - 9y ago

petters 9y ago

> leaking highly classified information to foreign powers - an act that would be punished as high treason in any sane country. If she had been convicted for intentionally leaking information to foreign powers for money, she would have been convicted for treason. But the prosecution could not find/show intent, so she was only convicted for incompetence.

BLanen 9y ago

This happens in every country in the world. Don't act like you're a special case.

xlocicicig 9y ago

Now, how do you fit feminism into this plot?

baalimago 9y ago

"location of all army vehicles" The defense minister has openly said that the "försvarsmakten"'s cars aren't listed in the STA's registers. I can't find a link to prove this but i think it was said in one of the press conference's

willvarfar 9y ago

I was with you for the first half, but the second half where you say the russians got stuff is silly and then the rant against 'feminist' government etc is just plain stupid.

throwawaymanbot 9y ago
hehe I agree. That poster went kind of bizarre there in the end. None of these things have anything to do with a Data breach. How weird they adopted white nationalist sentiments at the end..
depressedpanda 9y ago
One of the contractors who got access to the data was employed by the Serbian military for a decade. I suppose you are aware of the ties Serbia and its military has to Russia? It's not unprobable that this guy sold the information to Russia. Even if not, Sweden must treat a potential leak like this as a real leak, or else risk endangering their operatives. Oh, yeah. The leak is _still_ ongoing: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dn.se%2Fnyheter%2Fsverige%2Ftransportstyrelsens-gd-sakerheten-kan-garanteras-forst-i-host%2F https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u... More info here, with Google translated for your convenience: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2017/07/swedish-transport-agency-worst-known-governmental-leak-ever-is-slowly-coming-to-light/ https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2017/07/swedish-t...

litor 9y ago

That isn't really the full story. > Here's a summary of what foreign powers got access to: It's not been established that foreign powers got access to the data. It's considered a leak because confidential information is considered leaked as soon as it's not handled correctly. > Even worse: when they realized they'd leaked photos, home addresses and SSNs of protected identities, they sent a clear text email asking the contractor to clear them from the database manually. There were two leaks. One was the information not being handled correctly, the other was the disclosure of people with protected identities in the "car registry" to companies that would use the data to send advertisements to the owners. This wouldn't have included photos or SSNs. > SÄPO knew about this in 2015, and recommended against it, but the Transport Agency still went through with the deal. How they could even be allowed to do that is beyond me. They weren't really allowed, which is why the head of the agency was prosecuted. > Either she knew exactly what she was doing, meaning the Russians paid a meagre $8500 for full access to a database containing top secret information, or (more likely) she was just that stupid, meaning possibly hostile powers got this information for free. The investigation concluded that she was aware that she was breaking the law but not that the leak was intentional as such, therefor it was "willful negligence". > Here, Swedes believe that Trump is such a catastrophe, and wonder why Americans could vote for him. We should instead look at our own pathetic "feminist" government, and ask ourselves how and why we got here. That's silly. - IT operations used to be run by another government agency called The Transport Administration (vs. The Transport Agency). - The decision to outsource was done under the former government by the the former head of the agency in 2012. - The previous contract on IT operations was already cancelled, the staff was being let go, the facilities cleared and would no longer be available come January 2015. - The former head of the agency retired in February/March 2015, the deal with the IBM was concluded by the new head of the agency in April 2015. - The event is one in a long line of outsourcing and public-private partnership failures. Including the Public Employment Agency, Social Insurance Agency, Karolinska University Hospital etc. The only reason this outsourcing failure is big news is because the government is weak, "the alliance" in opposition is even weaker and there's an election next year. Anakata of The Pirate Bay fame hacked Logica (another consulting company) in 2012 accessing confidential data from multiple government agencies.

specialist 9y ago

Data breaches, loss of privacy are common, everywhere. The novel aspect here is this news wasn't buried. Yes, please be outraged. But please also realize its the norm. We (society) do not have the laws, rules, procedures, or technology to prevent or mitigate it. Edit: Just quickly read up on this incident. They did try to bury it. But I read one account that stated one the Pirate Bay guys daylighted the breach. Delicious irony. So this scandal is now at stage 4: Assign the blame. Next is stage 5: Rinse, lather, repeat.

depressedpanda 9y ago

For those of you who got triggered by "feminist", please do note the quotes. I.e., it's their claim, not mine[1]. I personally don't see that they've done much for gender equality, so they only make that claim because it's fashionable. In the end it doesn't matter how feminist a government is if it cannot properly rule a country, and their actions speak louder than empty words. What I personally find so galling about the whole debacle isn't that Maria Ågren wasn't punished enough, but the signals the state sends to the people. She got away with a slap on the wrist, and she will continue to earn $14 000/month in the forseeable future[2]. If someone becomes a director general of a state agency their resonsibilities and culpability should increase with the salary. Criminal incompetence is still criminal, and should be prosecuted. Instead, our government tried to bury the leak. [1]: http://www.government.se/government-policy/a-feminist-government/ http://www.government.se/government-policy/a-feminist-govern... [2]: https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/maria-agren-plockar-ut-lonen-som-vanligt https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/maria-agren-plockar-ut-lo...