Comments on: Is the U.S. Government Losing the Battle Against Hackers?

By: Mcdowall

Mcdowall — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:07:49 +0000

lol nice post, do you do guest posts?

By: Marc

Marc — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:37:33 +0000

“But who would you like the security of your computer trusted to, if not you? Would you prefer the government mandate how you protect your computer, or do you propose that if they increased penalties for hacking, that you would be free to ignore your computer’s security, comfortable in the knowledge that no one would dare compromise it? Perhaps there’s a third alternative…”
I do not think that increasing the penalties for hacking will really solve anything. That will only cause the hackers to find further ways to hide their identity, which they are good at anyway. There really isnt too much anyone can do to stop hackers. where there are networks and OSs, there will always be a way to hack it, its just a fact. What we really need to do is work harder on our anti-virus systems, as alot of the current systems used are practically obsolete against todays hackers. One of the quotes posted in the article above states that the government is planning on doing away with passwords, and instead installing a system which requires users to use a device to gain access to the network, which would probably work better than the current password system and is a step in the right direction of protecting important networks.

By: Thunder S

Thunder S — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 13:35:40 +0000

This also fits into Alvin Toffler’s ideas on organizations and developing society. The government is one of the slower organizations that will never be able to keep pace with how quickly technology and society are changing. The only organizations that are even remotely close are corporations…think tanks and universities too. The government simply can’t adapt quickly enough, the comment on laws was on point…

By: Damian

Damian — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:06:34 +0000

“Cyber-security remaining in the hands of the end user is a terrible thing when 80%+ of the world’s computers run Windows. ”

If the alternative is “letting the government protect my computer through legislation”, I’ll DEFINITELY be sticking with end-user protection. Keep in mind, I consider end user responsibility to include third-party firewalls, anti-virus and anti-spyware software. I’m not implying that every end user should have to program her own firewall.

But who would you like the security of your computer trusted to, if not you? Would you prefer the government mandate how you protect your computer, or do you propose that if they increased penalties for hacking, that you would be free to ignore your computer’s security, comfortable in the knowledge that no one would dare compromise it? Perhaps there’s a third alternative…

Also, you brought up the world’s Windows dominance. I’m not sure I see the relevance of that; are you arguing that if more people used Macs, the government could beat hacking?

By: nick

nick — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:43:00 +0000

Cyber-security remaining in the hands of the end user is a terrible thing when 80%+ of the world’s computers run Windows.

Also, I take issue with the reports of the attacks coming from Chinese servers indicating espionage – only dumb ‘skript kiddies’ (or whatever they’re called nowdays) run attacks from their own computers. If the Chinese .gov is spying on us, they’re going to be doing it from Zimbabwe routed through India, Russia and the EU, at the very least.

At least, I hope they’re smart enough to do that, considering China’s the only contender to replace us as the world’s ‘superpower.’ I want my new alien overlords to at least be smart enough to hide their tracks.

By: Damian

Damian — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:38:16 +0000

One can hardly be surprised the government is losing the battle against hackers. This is the same government that is losing the battle against cigarette smugglers crossing the Canadian border. By what stretch of the imagination should we expect the world’s largest bureaucracy to keep up with the world’s most nimble and state-of-the-art criminal? Hackers make up crimes faster than governments can write laws. For the foreseeable future, cyber-security will largely remain the responsibility of the end user. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing.