I love how these stories always tend to focus on the "cyber attacks" rather than the incompetence that allowed them to be attacked in the first place.
These days, if a website gets defaced because of an outdated Wordpress installation, the media instantly rallies to the victim's defence and portrays the script kiddies that did it as terrorists. And if they're not personally identifiable, they're government agents of wherever their IP addresses originate from (or whoever the current political go-to villain happens to be).
I wouldn't be surprised if this major government IT SNAFU paves the way to more aggressive "cyber crime" laws and more posturing against Russia. It'll also likely be used to make the public forget about the entire NSA ordeal (because hey, we totally need the US to protect us against evil Russia).
Keep in mind that the entire "we're under attack" narrative isn't as popular or widely accepted in Germany as it is in the US. The last attempt to portray us as having to defend ourselves against an attack was during our involvement in Afghanistan, which the public generally disagreed with (although our politicians promised unlimited solidarity to the US).
We're also in a really awkward position: politically we're very dependent on the US (up to the point where US agencies can legally do what it wants in Germany thanks to post-WW2 agreements) but economically we're also very dependent on Russia -- as is a lot of Europe, for that matter.
> I love how these stories always tend to focus on the "cyber attacks" rather than the incompetence that allowed them to be attacked in the first place.
For the same reason stories about home invasions or robberies don't blame the victim for leaving their house or car unlocked.
It get's even better: According to some reports[1], the german IT-security office (BSI) recommended completely replacing the IT-infrastructure with new hardware and software. They say the situation has gone out of control and that they are unable to stop the leaking of data from parliament computers to unknown third parties.
For this "we are being attacked" reason, they want to get the parlamentarians to let secret services manipulate their laptops / phones. It's a classic.
As if the local agencies are somehow less dangerous for the individual politician than the foreign agencies.
The actual costs, "millions", are rather irrelevant.
Some years ago there was some press about how many German politicians were complaining about the state phones and would bring in and use their own shiny phones, probably this goes for laptops too. I assume this was against the wishes of IT security. Then boom, and the politicians are complaining again.
We don't know what ethernet is, we thus started unplugging everything we could: pension funds, welfare spending, army spending. We even unplugged portugal, spain and greece, but nothing worked.
1. People want to work, and I assume the 'productivity' of politicians (meaning "we don't want security") brought this in the first place.
2. If sophisticated, the outflow of information might be with a mobile device plugged in, or other means to jump the air gap when ethernet is disconnected.
[+] [-] pluma|10 years ago|reply
These days, if a website gets defaced because of an outdated Wordpress installation, the media instantly rallies to the victim's defence and portrays the script kiddies that did it as terrorists. And if they're not personally identifiable, they're government agents of wherever their IP addresses originate from (or whoever the current political go-to villain happens to be).
I wouldn't be surprised if this major government IT SNAFU paves the way to more aggressive "cyber crime" laws and more posturing against Russia. It'll also likely be used to make the public forget about the entire NSA ordeal (because hey, we totally need the US to protect us against evil Russia).
Keep in mind that the entire "we're under attack" narrative isn't as popular or widely accepted in Germany as it is in the US. The last attempt to portray us as having to defend ourselves against an attack was during our involvement in Afghanistan, which the public generally disagreed with (although our politicians promised unlimited solidarity to the US).
We're also in a really awkward position: politically we're very dependent on the US (up to the point where US agencies can legally do what it wants in Germany thanks to post-WW2 agreements) but economically we're also very dependent on Russia -- as is a lot of Europe, for that matter.
[+] [-] rayiner|10 years ago|reply
For the same reason stories about home invasions or robberies don't blame the victim for leaving their house or car unlocked.
[+] [-] cstuder|10 years ago|reply
[1] http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Nach-Trojaner-Angriff...
[+] [-] rndn|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] totallynotcool|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fwn|10 years ago|reply
As if the local agencies are somehow less dangerous for the individual politician than the foreign agencies.
The actual costs, "millions", are rather irrelevant.
[+] [-] boroboro|10 years ago|reply
So your point is the German IT sec agency BSI is as dangerous to German politicians as the Russian GRU and SWR?
[+] [-] boroboro|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] r3m6|10 years ago|reply
And in what way are they dangerous? And if not these experts, who should do this (expert) work?
[+] [-] mauricemir|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] boroboro|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mauricemir|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TazeTSchnitzel|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tacone|10 years ago|reply
We don't know what ethernet is, we thus started unplugging everything we could: pension funds, welfare spending, army spending. We even unplugged portugal, spain and greece, but nothing worked.
Please help.
[+] [-] boroboro|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] matt4077|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iMerNibor|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] totallynotcool|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wiz21c|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] v4n4d1s|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Rockslide|10 years ago|reply