4 ms·

- identities of undercover operatives... This is terrible. When will people learn to NOT use computers at all for some things. Use typewriters and spend a litt

- identities of undercover operatives... This is terrible. When will people learn to NOT use computers at all for some things. Use typewriters and spend a little bit more on administrative workers. You trade in processing efficiency for making these catastrophic breaches rarer.

daemin 9y ago
I think for actual security you need to practice physical security. No matter if the data is stored on paper or electronically, you will still need to air gap it, and have security and clearance protecting that data. To put it into perspective Manning only got the data out because they were lax about securing the CD-burner in the computer he was using.
- unknown_apostle 9y ago
  Absolutely. But computers and centralized data make physical security easier. Old fashioned typewriters, paper files, and manual indexes for searches are safer (for very specific things), because you simply just can't haul all of it out. For a decent set of paperwork you'd spend months or years xeroxing everything. Leaks may happen but may be smaller. Processed and redacted data may still be put on computers for searching. It's a tradeoff with obvious serious disadvantages, but one that can save the operations and even lives of the good guys.
3pt14159 9y ago
I say this all the time, but I always get mocked for it. "There are hundreds of thousands of Americans with clearance, how are we supposed to administrate that without computers." But what's the alternative? Even if you air gap things very, very aggressively you still get owned. The CIA has said that air gaps have never stopped them. Ok, so what are we going to do? Getting data out from computer systems is too easy. Things should be pen and paper and maybe specialized typewriters (there are ways of bugging typewriters or using sound recordings of the typing to reconstruct sentences). At the very least we should keep our foreign agents out of our databases.
- unknown_apostle 9y ago
  Let's assume people stop mocking this idea and ditch computers for the most recent and highly classified data. Over decades of replacing everything with computers and retiring oldtimers, we probably lost a whole set of skills to run physical paperwork, keep it secure and detect breaches.

daemin 9y ago

I think for actual security you need to practice physical security. No matter if the data is stored on paper or electronically, you will still need to air gap it, and have security and clearance protecting that data. To put it into perspective Manning only got the data out because they were lax about securing the CD-burner in the computer he was using.

unknown_apostle 9y ago
Absolutely. But computers and centralized data make physical security easier. Old fashioned typewriters, paper files, and manual indexes for searches are safer (for very specific things), because you simply just can't haul all of it out. For a decent set of paperwork you'd spend months or years xeroxing everything. Leaks may happen but may be smaller. Processed and redacted data may still be put on computers for searching. It's a tradeoff with obvious serious disadvantages, but one that can save the operations and even lives of the good guys.

3pt14159 9y ago

I say this all the time, but I always get mocked for it. "There are hundreds of thousands of Americans with clearance, how are we supposed to administrate that without computers." But what's the alternative? Even if you air gap things very, very aggressively you still get owned. The CIA has said that air gaps have never stopped them. Ok, so what are we going to do? Getting data out from computer systems is too easy. Things should be pen and paper and maybe specialized typewriters (there are ways of bugging typewriters or using sound recordings of the typing to reconstruct sentences). At the very least we should keep our foreign agents out of our databases.

unknown_apostle 9y ago
Let's assume people stop mocking this idea and ditch computers for the most recent and highly classified data. Over decades of replacing everything with computers and retiring oldtimers, we probably lost a whole set of skills to run physical paperwork, keep it secure and detect breaches.