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> Senate staff were instructed to respond to the email, which outlined a potential threat for the drill, with their status and location on Capitol Hill or off c
by wolverine876 3y ago
> Senate staff were instructed to respond to the email, which outlined a potential threat for the drill, with their status and location on Capitol Hill or off campus. But the thousands of simultaneous reply-alls that ensued first clogged up inboxes before staff were unable to get into their inboxes altogether.
That's why we test! Imagine if that happened during an actual crisis. Give them a break - that's the point of testing, to discover these glitches.
Note that another negative outcome is that high value targets (e.g., Schumer and McConnell) are emailing every Senate employee with their location, not to mention the email chain also provides aggregated information on where crowds of targets can be found.
Also, email ain't so secure. A sophisticated enemy - and I'm pretty sure the US government actually has some of those - would love that information. Heck, you can find locations just by locating mail traffic.
> The Senate’s email system, run through Microsoft Outlook
It's 2023 and someone is still writing that?
- MR4D 3y ago> Imagine if that happened during an actual crisis. I’m ironically imagining our enemies are coming up with some heinous reply-all scheme that will bring us to our knees.
- wolverine876 3y agoIt's called "Social Media".
- IggleSniggle 3y agoSome PsyOps person on here had a term for this, slowing your enemy down by getting them bogged down in unimportant details, but I've forgotten what it was...
- jjk166 3y agoSounds like a cross between bikeshedding and nerd sniping.
- kthejoker2 3y agoThus one who is skillful at keeping the enemy on the move maintains deceitful appearances, according to which the enemy will act. He sacrifices something, that the enemy may snatch at it. By holding out baits, he keeps him on the march; then with a body of picked men he lies in wait for him. - Some famous Chinese PsyOps dude
- salawat 3y agohttps://ronaldthomaswest.com/2017/08/21/the-gentlepersons-guide-to-forum-spies/ https://ronaldthomaswest.com/2017/08/21/the-gentlepersons-gu... Topic dilution is the term you're looking for.
- pierat 3y ago[flagged]
- c0pium 3y agoOutlook is not an MTA.
- midoridensha 3y agoYou seem to have confused socialism and fascism. A government too entwined with a small number of corporations, to the point that it seems like it's a government for the corporations rather than the people, is generally considered a feature of fascism. A government embracing some sort of anti-corporate and free-and-open solution like OSS would resemble a socialistic policy more. But yes, I agree, the USG (and other governments) really should embrace Linux/OSS and help contribute to the ecosystem as well (unlike North Korea, for instance, which has a government-maintained Linux distro called Red Flag, but of course doesn't contribute anything at all).
- jazzyjackson 3y ago[flagged]
- sScTE9qEMCxEk34 3y agoOne word: propaganda
- thaumasiotes 3y ago> A government too entwined with a small number of corporations, to the point that it seems like it's a government for the corporations rather than the people, is generally considered a feature of fascism. A government embracing some sort of anti-corporate and free-and-open solution like OSS would resemble a socialistic policy more. Huh? We know what the socialist policy was. It was that the government was so closely entwined with corporations that they were staffed by government officials and explicitly considered arms of the government. None of the features you mention in your comment represent a distinction between socialism and fascism. They're shared by both systems. They just go farther in socialism than they do in fascism.
- c0pium 3y agoI love how out-of-touch HN comments can be sometimes, it’s a breath of fresh air for me. Outlook the mail software (as opposed to the coat of paint applied to hotmail) is used by almost the entire Fortune 500, basically every government at every size, and a decent chunk of the Windows-using western world (which is most of it). If you’re wondering why you have trouble selling to enterprise and government clients, this type of gap in perception is a big part of it.
- xav0989 3y agoI think it was more a comment on the fact that Outlook is the mail client, not the MTA.
- coryrc 3y agoThe point is mail is run through Microsoft Exchange, not the client software.
- c0pium 3y agoGiven how wrong the rest of the comment was, confusing mail client and mail server seemed like small potatoes. Especially when it can be argued that mail flows through the client if you squint a bit.
- dangggg 3y ago[dead]
- wolverine876 3y agoWhat was wrong with the rest of the comment?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- threeseed 3y agoMany enterprises have moved to Microsoft 365. Which uses Outlook.com and not Exchange.
- eviks 3y agoWhy would you give them a break if this should've been tested, found, and fixed, ages ago?
- wolverine876 3y agoWhen did this project start?
- Clubber 3y ago>It's 2023 and someone is still writing that? Journalism isn't the profession it once was (if it ever was) from major corporations. They're just writing information they are fed by a source and spruce it up a little for views, maybe. There's no investigation going on anymore, there's no source checking generally, at least not like there used to be. The current business model doesn't allow for that in large organizations.
- Angostura 3y agoIt's Politico, not an IT news source. I think someone on deadline potentially confusing Microsoft's client software and it's MTA is forgivable, particularly given the ever-shifting landscape of MS' branding in this area
- Clubber 3y agoI mean sure, Outlook was only released ~26 years ago, I'm sure they'll catch up eventually.
- wolverine876 3y agoHonestly, that's fair. I just haven't read something like that in a major publication in a long time.