Breach!

 

 

"Some non-governmental experts have said the cyber security in the hacked data bases were so loose, an experienced hacker could have driven a truck trough the firewalls..."

Question: What is the most scary part of any data breach? Answer: Not knowing what you do not know. To clarify, that means not knowing exactly how much you have lost. How long the breach had been there. Or if any malicious viruses or back door codes have been left in the system. In short, a data breach is similar to having your house robbed and not really knowing how much stuff was taken.

The latest news concerning the breach of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Interior Department data systems only gets worse with age. It seems now that this breach could have been there, undetected, for a year. However nobody seems to really know (as yet) the exact time frame. In addition, instead of 4M identities being compromised, the number could be closer to 12M. Again, we don't know for certain as yet. And the amount of information stolen could be a show stopper. Besides SSNs, military records, pay records, addresses, phone numbers, you name it.

This is my opinion only as I am not quoting anyone. What scares me the most is what we don't know. In other words, for the Chinese (or whomever) to hack into this governmental data base, where else have they been? Our utilities? Our financial systems? Our Defense Department? Have hackers from potential advisories been sneaking in layers of destructive code in our electrical grid? Our nuclear plants? I mean, every time I start to think about the possibilities of the damage hackers can do these days, it sends chills up my spine.

Again, what can we as citizens do. Not to sound like Chicken Little, here are some ideas:

• Protect your identity with some kind of data protection or data insurance program such as Life Lock. Look for more and more of these identity protection programs to spring up as the demand increases. They are not a guarantee against disaster, but will help against most hacks. I cannot recommend this strongly enough.
• If the power grid goes down, everything is going to come to a stand still. Hopefully, our power companies have "war gamed" these scenarios and have plans to where the outage would not last indefinitely. However, even if the outage is only for a week, most households would have no water, power or natural gas. Have enough supplies on hand to be self sustaining for at least a week. A month would be better, but start off with a week. WATER IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING!
• Have hard copies of all your financial investments and savings. If the financial institutions get hacked and their "mirror" sights are also affected, you will need some proof of what you own. Wiping out (even temporarily) a record of everyone's investments could be devastating.
• Buy a safe and keep some cash in it. Does not have to be much, but enough just in case the banking system becomes disabled and you cannot get cash from the ATMs.
• Finally, don't be afraid to think outside the box. Think of worst case scenarios. What we have seen from this last breach is how poorly our information is protected in some government data bases.

I am afraid this cyber security war is just getting started. It will not be a passing fancy as it will be with us from now on. It will be a cat and mouse game on steroids - played out on a grand scale. We need to always remember that our world today is made up of data. Data concerning just about everything. As much as a game changing tool that most data and data systems have been, they are also juicy targets for the nefarious or mischievous.

Stay alert. Stay prepared. And stay tuned in. This latest attack will probably not be our last.

More summer re-runs

 

 

"The only problem with re-runs is we all know how the stories ends..."

Some complain about this, others don't. Put me in the corner of one who complains. What am I talking about? Hollywood. HollyWeird. Another summer of re-runs has begun. Mad Max, Jurassic Park, Poltergeist, and so on. Plus let us not forget the sequels, the prequels to Star Wars, Star Trek and so on. As the expression goes, nothing new under the sun.

But you know this story could not just be about movies. It is also about our government. Not just federal, but also state. What is new? We will look at state first. And it is indeed a re-run from years gone by.

We are coming close (if you believe the paper) to crafting a deal. It will be wonderful. Our local Party of Lincoln has once again acted like reluctant warriors. They have been able to slow down the DFL express by just a bit. The bottom line is this - even though the Pre-K has been stemmed (a bit) this time around, the size of our huge government has once again grown. And grown faster than the average income.

Our tax code has needed work for years now. Major work, major surgery. Our brave men and women, who served a career helping to keep us safe, are now getting skewered by our state government. After years of making peanuts for a salary, our state government will continue to tax their retirement pay. They deserve so much better. Plus, we continue to tax our seniors out of the state. Everyone has known this is a huge and unfair problem. But nobody seems to have the stones to fix it. A re-run for sure.

Well enough about us. How about the Feds? The new trade deal in Washington, known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (or TPP), is so secret it should be kept in Warehouse 13. And now it is being shoved through Congress. And some of the pushing is by our national Party of Lincoln. Why is this a re-run? It is ObamaCare all over again. "Just sign the damn thing and we will figure it out later." Some who have had a peek at it have called it "NAFTA on steroids". What do I think about it? No clue. It is been classified at Top Secret, or something like that. I have no need to know. After all, I am just a taxpayer.

So what is the most tiresome re-run this summer? Our government(s). Both the federal as well as the state need a new script. Something fresh. Something important. A script which returns the control back to the people. One that gives us hope for our future. Hope for our children's future.

Our current script is tired and old. And we know how it ends, just like every other year. More, and more, and more government, costing more, and more, and more money. Blah, blah, blah...

Torting our rule of law

 

 

 

"Many kids today have zero respect. Zero respect for teachers, for other adults, for the police. We are raising packs of feral youth in many of our large cities..."

When I was at the "U" and took Business Law, one of the words I learned which became one of my favorite was tort. The word goes back eons, and back then it simply meant "twist". Like something would become twisted. For example today, our rule of law. It seems like not a week goes by without some city having a confrontation between misbehaving citizens (often times youth) and the local police.

So what has changed since I was a kid growing up in Robbinsdale, Minnesota? Well first off, I was never hassled by the police. Probably the best reason for that was I kept my nose clean. Did not get into much trouble at all. I was also told by my parents that should I ever get into trouble and police were called, I was to act like an angel. "Yes sir", "no sir", cooperate and OBEY. The police would then call my parents to come and get me.

The second thing which has changed is just as important. Should I have ever become sideways with the law, the judgment waiting for me at home would have been worse than with the police. You see, back then parents (for the most part) respected the rule of law. If you (as a youth) got into trouble at school, your parents would most likely side with the teacher. If you (as a youth) got in trouble with the police, your parents would most likely side with the police.

The dust up which happened the other day in Florida is indicative of what is happening just about everywhere today. Unruly kids acting poorly. The police are then called, and the kids disobey and disrespect our rule of law. Our police are here, have been hired by us, to enforce laws which are on the books. Period. They don't make up their own laws - they enforce laws on the books. If someone does not like those laws, get politically active and try to get those laws changed.

My heart goes out to many of the police officers today. In this twisted world of up is down and black is white, cops have become bad and bad behavior has become tolerated. Where did this change start? The parenting or lack thereof. If today's parents had better control over their kids AND respect for our rule of law, situations like what happened in Florida would become as rare as hen's teeth.

As for me at age 65, I still like and respect our police. When in trouble, I could not think of a better friend to call. They are trained, and they care. To me, they are friends and heroes. Enough said.

How we learn...

 

 

"Learning today should be as easy as falling off a log compared to what it was 50 years ago or so..."

Okay. This is going to make me sound like I just escaped from Jurassic Park. I am going to reveal how I learned when I was growing up. First off, the only electronics I used to learn were the nightly news on TV and maybe a radio station. Other than that, the only thing electrical devices were the light bulbs in the library.

And the library. It was all books. No computers or any other electronics. To find a book, one needed to be educated in the fine art of the Dewey Decimal System. For those who don't know what this is, please don't ask me to explain it. It is still too depressing for me to ponder.

I thought about learning yesterday. It was triggered when I was at physical therapy in the morning. My provider, who is a very nice young man, was telling me about doing some mechanical surgery on the motor for his fishing boat. He was very proud of himself, as he had never tackled something like that before. When I asked him how he figured it out, his answer was very short - You Tube. He said he uses You Tube quite often to learn about things. It is a great visual tool.

Who would have thunk it? Today's learning can come from a plethora of sources. So many it seems, there is really no excuse for not learning. I think that even though the Google Corporation dives me crazy with all their liberal gobbledy gook, I am still amazed by their technology. I you can't find something on Google, it probably does not yet exist.

As our smart phones get smarter every year, they are forcing us to learn stuff even if we don't want to. Some of it is good, some is just more clutter to move around in our heads. Every day many of us are exposed to desk tops, lap tops, tablets, smart phones, readers, televisions, radios or all of the above. The current generation of Millennials should be lapping their parents and grandparents in this whole learning thing. But they are not.

As for me (a grandpa), who did most of my learning the old fashion way while growing up, I now choose to eschew it. I like the new learning tools! I can learn more, and learn it faster. Both my wife and I use Google numerous times a day. Yes, I even use You Tube also. I use the internet, I watch cable news. Soon, more and more cable stations will be offered in streaming format to watch on our lap tops (or smaller) devices. 

Speaking of websites, there are monitoring tools online which can tell you (in real time) the number of websites available. Right now, the number of websites is just a tick below 1B. And that does not include any nefarious sites from the Deep Web. One billion websites! As they say in Wisconsin, that is a lot of cheese!

Time to wrap this up. I need to get back to the internet and do some research for another project I am working on. In this brave new world of learning, even us oldies can adapt. And adapt I have! 

The beast that should not live...

 

 

"What in the Sam Hill has happened to our statewide Party of Lincoln?"

I am a proud Conservative. I have been one for a while. Not as conservative as some, probably more so than others. I have not professed to be a Republican for some time now. True, I end up voting Republican just about every election. But Republicans have a habit of disappointing. Of dropping the ball. Of becoming Democrat light. However the biggest disappointment I have seen within Republicanism is MN GOP. And that is the nicest thing I can say without censoring myself.

Our state party has been a mess for quite a while now. Does not seem to matter who is running the show, it is embarrassing. When I was a member of the Conservative Coalition, we interviewed Mr. Downey when he was vying for the job. In the interview he said all the right things. Made all the right promises. So he got the job. The result - we have what some are calling "a hostile work environment" and a party still saddled with a huge debt.

The irony is simply this: I think our SD BPOU is run very well. Our CD6 is run very well. Our national party has been running quite a bit better under Reince Priebus. But our state party? It needs new leadership. One of the most amazing acts of selfish management has just taken place in MN GOP. First the party chair asks for and receives a huge increase in pay. And then shortly thereafter, he wants to cut the pay of the deputy chair down to zero. What the what? 

One of the reasons I believe MN GOP still has money problems is people don't want to send money to that organization. I won't. Sending them money (until they get their act together) is nothing more than burning good money after bad. I will give money directly to candidates I choose to support.

One minor point of disclosure. I am a friend of the Deputy Chair. He is a good man. However, even if I did not know and like him, I would still stand against what the Chairman has done. It is just plain wrong. We either fix this beast, or let it die. Right now it is doing very little good for or to anyone.

I see America

 

 

"This land is your land, this land is my land..."

Yesterday when I was cutting my fast growing grass, I had time to ponder. In fact, many times I do some of my best thinking when cutting grass. It is a time to empty out the clutter and then sometimes think deep thoughts. Yesterday was one of those days.

I thought about America. Our great country. Even though I often complain about the direction we are headed with some important constructs, there is still no other place on Earth like it. American Exceptionalism. American spirit. American leadership. As my thoughts went deeper, it all boiled down to one immutable fact - each day, every day, I see America.

I see America in most everything I do, everyplace I go, and yes, most everyone I met or talk with. I see our freedoms, our liberty blaze their colors in most everything we do in this great country. I see America when I visit friends, both current and from the past. I see America when I safely worship at a church of my choice. When working, I saw in America great and unfettered opportunity. Opportunity for each to succeed or to fail. I was able to work where I wanted to work, and do the type of job I wanted to do.

I see America every time I walk into a grocery store and see thousands of items stocked on full shelves. I see America when I drive down the most streets. There I see almost unlimited houses which are heated, cooled, plumbed, and shelters from bad weather. I see America when I drive through the countryside and see thousands upon thousands of acres of growing crops. I see America knowing that many of those crops not only feed our people, but also millions worldwide who do not have enough food.

I see America when I see the compassion which runs through this land like a mighty river of hope. I see America when our people help the hungry, the homeless and the hurting both near and afar. Yes, I also see America when evil raises its ugly head and the world looks to America for help. And I see America when sometimes helping a hurting world costs us the most valuable of all treasures - our young men and women. Our young men and women who sometimes give all by going into harm's way to vanquish evil and preserve liberty.

And I see America when nations look up to us as not just as a country, but as an idea. The rock singer Bono recently said, "America is not just a country, it is an idea which has now been shared with the world". And that we are. For you and I are not the only ones who see America - it is also seen by millions, billions of people worldwide. As President Reagan said, "America is a city on a hill for all to see."

Yes, I even see America in our political process where we may disagree without our disagreements becoming violent. I see an America where as imperfect as we are, we continue to be a work in progress. I see an America where most each and every one of us has the opportunity to vote for America's direction every other year.

And I see the hope for America when I look into my grandson's blue eyes. For he is one of the inheritors. This land now belongs to him also. My hope is as he grows and matures, those eyes will be opened. Opened so he too, will be able to see America. And what a sight that is to behold...  

Screwing in the lightbulb

 

 

"Question: How many government workers does it take to screw in a light bulb? Answer: Unknown, as for most of them, it is way too hard..."

Let me first apologize. I really should not be on the government's case again today. But it is low fruit on the tree. It is like the kid back in school who wears a "kick me" sign on his back. It really does seem like every day there is something new. Something so screwed up, one might think it was almost done on purpose.

Today in the paper was a small article about a small amount of money which seems to have been misappropriated by the SSI (disability) program. It is really no big shakes for a program which seems to be on a path to insolvency. A government watchdog group has determined the Social Security Administration, through the SSI program, has paid out $19B over the last decade to unauthorized people. Shocking right? It gets worse. The payments not only went out to those were no longer disabled, but also to people who have died.

This story comes out right on top of the whopper about the DOD anthrax screw up. You know the story. Where inert anthrax was going to be sent to some labs nationwide and live anthrax was sent by mistake. So far so good - nobody has died. However, the story could have turned out much differently. Will someone be held accountable for this or fired? Not likely. Your chances of getting fired from a government job are less than winning the Power Ball.

Of course a week or so ago the story was the 96% failure rate the TSA received on their last audit. The punishment for the acting director? Reassigned. Not fired, reassigned. The VA in Phoenix is still a mess with wait times. With the VA, the beat goes on. It is still a mess. And of course, let us not forget about the hack job with our government data base. Because it was so loose on cyber security, Chinese hackers were able to breach it and steal millions of identities.

I really don't know what the answer is. It has been like this for quite a while. No matter the agency, it is always the same. Accountability is low, performance is low, and life is easy. Money is of no consequence. It is like play money for many. Monopoly money. And yet the people in this country who love big government, will work overtime to defend this sad and broken system.

So next April 15th when you write out your check to Uncle Sam, rest easy. Good stewardship is a term which has not yet been learned by our government. Nor is it welcome. However the trio of waste, fraud and abuse are alive and kicking...