Cheating website subscribers included WH, Congress workers

Posted by $ nickursis 8 years, 8 months ago to Government
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Wow, lets seehere, your security clearance is based on a background check to make sure you do not have anything that can be used against you by a foreign power..except your AM account. Evidently, when Obamas gang is not busy making up new complicated laws to steal our money and freedom, they are trying to get laid, all on our dime. Nice...your government at work...or not...
SOURCE URL: https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/evidence-infidelities-spreads-online-wake-hack-144026220.html


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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 8 years, 8 months ago
    The Ashley Madison situation is an interesting one. Was the sabotage done by religionists trying to enforce their values on others? Was the sabotage done by divorce lawyers, who undoubtedly will benefit from this situation? Was the sabotage done by an estranged lover just to get back at his/her former lover?

    I can't help but think of Francisco d'Anconia's speech on sex, of which I will quote just a line:
    "Well, the man who despises himself tries to gain self-esteem from sexual adventures–which can’t be done, because sex is not the cause, but an effect and an expression of a man’s sense of his own value.”
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  • Posted by Animal 8 years, 8 months ago
    One of my emails is on their (Ashley Madison's) list. Mrs. Animal knows it. A couple years back I wrote a blog post about the site, so I used on of my less-used emails to sign up for a free account and surfed their site, with Mrs. Animal looking over my shoulder.

    We had some great yucks reading the profiles and looking at the photos. Not a great-looking bunch of folks.

    As for AM themselves, they are operating in a free (well, sorta) market, serving a market-defined need. People are going to screw, and AM gave them a discreet outlet to pursue their extramarital screwing. OK.

    As for this going on from government computers, my main problem with that is this: We're paying those damn people to work, not mess around (play on words intentional) on hookup sites.
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  • Posted by $ Abaco 8 years, 8 months ago
    My wife and I were talking about this this morning. What if your email was on that list and you never had any involvement in that site? Could that happen? I bet it could. She told me that one of her friends found her ex husband's email address on there.

    We live in this Puritan America and people don't have outlets. They are expected to obey their spouse if they are in a marriage with no affection. What a mess. My wife has nothing to worry about. I have enough luck at the local Starbucks. (That last line is a joke). I'm really crazy about my wife, and love my kids...
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    • Posted by $ 8 years, 8 months ago
      We do lack a workable moral framework. Religion has long been used to restrict the natural urge by a male to fertilize as many females as possible, the bonding thing was just a survival tool to ensure the children survived to reproductive age, then it fades, and was codified by religions to ensure you maintained your status as a "contributor" to said religion. So now we have a bunch of randy non religious types who just want to breed. Changing moral codes is a long term process, so this will flounder on for a long time to come. A lot of sci fi has addressed such an issue, Robert Heinlein comes to mind in his later years, and he was roundly castigated for his ideas. I agreed with his moral code he developed for his later books, it both ensured the survival of the children and also the needs of the adults. But did not fit the religious code at all...
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  • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 8 years, 8 months ago
    Cute and all, but irrelevant. Fidelity, monogamy, polyamory, and all the other forms and expressions are just what people do. They can work in the White House or the International House of Pancakes. Remember that Ayn Rand called Atlas Shrugged "primarily a love story." The Fountainhead and We the Living offer similar plot lines. Ayn Rand called her philosophy "Objectivism" a word that had meaning in formal philosophy without the capital-O. Rand's is just a form of the other. She did not call her philosophy "Absolutism." Some things are absolute, the law of identity, for instance. Marital fidelity is not an absolute. Just ask Ayn Rand.
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    • Posted by khalling 8 years, 8 months ago
      from the first paragraph:" Hundreds of U.S. government employees — including some with sensitive jobs in the White House, Congress and law enforcement agencies — used Internet connections in their federal offices to access and pay membership fees to the cheating website."
      two things: If a government employee had a heightened security clearance or access to sensitive security information, this would be not only an ethical violation, but perhaps even something criminal. Let's just say if I were a spy, seems like a great way to reach out to targets
      2. govt employees using their government contact information and emails on such a site at the very least I would think breaks administrative protocol, but am not sure of that.
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      • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 8 years, 8 months ago
        I agree 100% on the violation of protocols. The fact that it happens all the time is a deeper problem. It is not special to the Obama White House. Laurel and I made this proposal to South by Southwest Interactive, "Bleeding Data."
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYwg4...

        On her blog, IntentionalPrivacy, she has a long list of stories about the ways that we all just give ourselves away. On the other hand, just now, she is starting a new job and is filling out insurance forms. She called me for my information. Nothing sent in any email is ever secure. Just after that, following up on a lead with a recruiter, I called the recruiter on the phone to verbally give her information about my experience in some markets that I would not put in email.

        (And no, the phone is not perfectly secure, either. I introduced speakers at a recent IEEE conference here in Austin, and one of the talks was from Carnegie-Mellon: they hacked Android phones to get access to the camera. Recently, another set of Android vulnerabilities was exposed.)

        So, yes, it is like the Secret Service agents hiring prostitutes while in Columbia. But those scandals break in any and every administration.
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        • Posted by $ 8 years, 8 months ago
          Agreed, it goes back to the roots of people who think they are impervious to any type of rules or limits, they have some kind of "inalienable right" to do what they want. Even if it is in violation of their particular work, which they are being paid for. Hillary is an excellent example, but she is just the poster girl. This shows just how deep that attitude goes, and then it reflects on their arrogant application of their agenda on us. You are indeed very correct on the how information is being gathered by a huge collection of parties. I can lofg on to any computer, anywhere, and get adds for Star Trek Axanar, Elio and computer parts I have looked at recently, even though I have no cookies set. Any one who thinks they are "anonymous" today is dreaming. Politicians should take note of this. The NSA is not the only snoopers around, even your car can get jacked, which will be the nest big crime wave, as expensive cars are taken over, driven to a site and then taken. But we will have to wait until that all happens, and then watch everyone flop and flail for a fix before it will ever get addressed.
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      • Posted by $ 8 years, 8 months ago
        khalling, you are indeed correct on both counts. I just found this to be good evidence of what we already know about gov't, and their ethical challenges. Thanks.
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    • Posted by $ 8 years, 8 months ago
      Oh I agree with your premise, however, I respectfully disagree on the meaning. If you are in a position where your honesty and integrity are part of the price of admission, to compromise it as they have, as well as to then lecture the rest of the society on what "we should be doing" is most relevant. They have no moral authority to govern at that point. They also then become a liability. I do not mean that the fact they used it is an issue, I meant on both government time, using government addresses, and exposing themselves to just this thing. I agree that using it is not something I should be concerned with, in and of itself.
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      • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 8 years, 8 months ago
        I agree with your points above. As I noted to khalling, the breach reflects a deeper problem. The people in the Obama White House are not especially evil. They are just people. And millions of people leave themselves open every day. We call it "Bleeding Data": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYwg4...

        If you have been to a doctor's office recently, they had you sign a form allowing them to share your information after "de-personalizing" it. What does that mean? I assure you that no one in the office can tell you. In fact, you can be identified by your ZIP Code + Date of Birth + Gender three data that are fundamental to any demographic study of medical information. So, no, we do not sign off on that. Millions of people - some of them in "sensitive" jobs - do. It is a problem, all right.
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        • Posted by $ 8 years, 8 months ago
          Again, you are correct, data is only a set of facts that can be assembled for effect. People do not realize how disparate data sets can be assembled and identify you. Big Brother is indeed alive and well.
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