• tal@lemmy.today
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    1 month ago

    I’m kind of leaning towards the idea that the US government should offer secure IT services to campaigns, because this is a problem for the country, not just the people involved.

    Like, a campaign alone probably cannot counter nation-state intelligence agencies acting against them.

    And the problem is larger than just “a country might try to undermine someone’s campaign”.

    Having damning material to blackmail a President would be a problem, even if the material comes from activity prior to time as a President. We do not want that.

    EDIT: l’d also add that this isn’t just a problem for the US. Leaders in general, but particularly leaders of democracies, where popularity determines who holds power, face that as a risk factor.

    It’s not an entirely new problem in the Internet era, but I think that the problems are tremendously exacerbated by having a lot of sensitive information living on very complicated machines connected to a globally-accessible network.

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      You can have the best cybersecurity team in the world and they still wouldn’t be able to do anything about a dementia patient this stupid. His passwords are dumb shit like “MAGA2020” maybe with an exclamation mark.

      • big_slap@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        cybersecurity is only as strong as its weakest link. I don’t expect him to follow anything that he is recommended to do by experts for something as complicated as computers, lol

    • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      This is not about the need for government support, this case is solely a case of gross incompetence in IT.

      If one gets hacked, one makes dead sure that the hole where the attacker entered and all the holes the attacker created afterwards are thoroughly taken care of.

    • Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      The government buys IT services from the same companies that everyone else does: Google, Microsoft and Amazon. They all offer special government offerings with stricter security.

      I guarantee Trump is getting hacked because he and his team refuse to listen to IT and won’t let them turn on basic security features because they’re a slight inconvenience.

    • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 month ago

      Having damning material to blackmail a President would be a problem, even if the material comes from activity prior to time as a President. We do not want that.

      Yes, I do not want a president. The fact that they can all be blackmailed is just one reason among countless.