3 ms·

> sophisticated cyber security breach Like an unpatched Windows XP machine?

• Wowfunhappy 4y ago
  I mean, it’s possible, but I see no reason to assume that. The article mentions files related to national security, so this isn’t your local school board. I’d expect they have at least decent security protocols in place.
  • yellow_lead 4y ago
    > I’d expect they have at least decent security protocols in place. Don't expect too much from the government :)
    • Wowfunhappy 4y ago
      There's a reason the most sophisticated attacks usually come from "state actors".
    • heywoodlh 4y ago
      The U.S. government actually provides a lot of really awesome free security resources and I believe they implement a lot of security measures. One of my favorite security resource provided by the govt. is STIG[1]. If you take your time to implement the measures outlined in STIG in your network it would be EXTREMELY difficult (in my opinion) to break into your network/devices without a zero-day or other undiscovered exploit. I have not worked for the govt, so I do not have a first-party understanding. And I doubt any entity is impervious to simple/well-known attack vectors (such as EternalBlue) but my experience with STIG as a security engineer has always left me really impressed with the level of research and suggestions the government provides to the public -- for free. [1] https://public.cyber.mil/stigs/ https://public.cyber.mil/stigs/
      • feet 4y ago
        They also do this while other parts of the government have their budgets gutted. How do they pay IT to implement security?
        • heywoodlh 4y ago
          Fair enough, I don't really have first-hand experience with government IT positions so I don't have much to add with how the government implements security.
        • Wowfunhappy 4y ago
          Parts of the government related to national security are pretty well funded.
• abirch 4y ago
  Could be phishing as well