Category Archives: politics

Ransomware and Government Entities

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The Wall Street Journal, in an article about ransomware being used to hack city (and other) computer systems, asked the question Should Cities Pay?

Not only no, cities (and others) should not pay, but no2.

Aside from paying the ransom being an act of cowardice, it aids and abets the criminals—which is amoral, if not yet a felony.

Sure, it costs more in the moment to refuse and rebuild, but what costs are saved by not telling the hacker world that the city will gladly pay the ransom and so be hacked repeatedly?  What’s the cost to other, similarly situated, cities and towns (and public libraries) when one gladly aids and abets?

What’s the excuse, today, with ransomware so well known, for cities not hardening their systems against this hack (and other hacks) before the hack occurs?

Protecting US Technology

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The Trump administration is moving toward a set of rules that would heavily restrict the People’s Republic of China’s ability to acquire American technology-developing companies and American technology.

Of course, there are objections to protecting our stuff.

Industry groups…are mainly concerned that the export controls could negatively affect their businesses by preventing them from using their technological edge.

If such groups were truly serious about this, they’d be truly serious about hardening their member companies’ facilities against hacking.

And

While many object to the investment restrictions, they are seen as having less practical impact because Chinese investment has fallen off so drastically.

This is short-sighted to the point of being disingenuously so.  The PRC’s investment has fallen off because, through theft, hacking, and their extortionate requirement of “sharing” technology and inserting backdoors into core software as a condition of doing business in the PRC, they’ve largely caught up.  When we get our edge back, the PRC’s “investment” efforts will pick back up.  The restriction objectors know this.

Bad Bonds?

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Recall that Michigan State University agreed to pay $500 million to victims and associates of Larry Nassar’s sex abuse victims while he was pretending to treat our women gymnasts’ injuries.

Now the school intends to float bonds to raise the money to pay the bill.

Were I an investment advisor—which I’m not, nor do I play one on the radio—I’d advise against buying these bonds; I’m not satisfied Michigan State will be able to pay them off in the end, even with OPM.

Aside from their investment quality, or lack, I also think it’s immoral to bail out the school until there has been a serious cleaning house of school management, from middle management layers all the way up through the top layer.  This house-cleaning must include the athletic department as well as HR, student affairs, extracurricular affairs, and the President’s office.  Especially in the latter and in the athletic department, no one should be left but the secretaries.

And none of this gets to the fact that the bond offering is just a cynical back-door effort to get taxpayers to pay for the school’s failure.  That’s also morally unacceptable.

And this:

[The school] is in talks with its insurers and has said it expects to recover at least some funds through them.

Is the school seriously suggesting that it bought insurance against the risk that its medical personnel would engage in sexual abuse?  I can think of no other way in which insurers would be liable for a payout here.

Self-Defense

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The People’s Republic of China did this to our aircraft in Africa, too.  And, yes, it’s the PRC.  No one else, save us and possibly Russia, have this capability.  Russia isn’t in the East China Sea.

Lasers have targeted pilots of American military aircraft operating over the western Pacific Ocean more than 20 times in recent months….
…
Officials said all of the incidents occurred in and around the East China Sea, typically where the Chinese military or other Chinese civilians operate. The laser signals directed at American aircraft appeared to be coming from fishing boats operating in the area and from shore….

Fishing boats.  Sure.

This is the PLA conducting OT&E against our pilots as it tests a range of laser powers for operational utility.  The laser sites and ships doing the shooting need to be destroyed in prompt self-defense response.  Gussy it up with excuses and denials as the PRC would like to do, these are overt attacks.

The Supremes Get One Right

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The Supreme Court ruled Friday that authorities generally need a search warrant before they can obtain broad access to data that shows the location of cellphone users, a decision that sets privacy boundaries in the digital age.
The court, in a 5-4 opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, cited the Fourth Amendment’s guarantee to be free from unreasonable government searches.

And

We decline to grant the state unrestricted access to a wireless carrier’s database of physical location information[.]

Yewbetcha.