Posts by [e-mail]

DOGE dilettantes 'didn't test' Social Security fraud detection tool at appropriate scale

Over 65

As someone who has interacted with the Social Security (and Medicare) quite a bit in the last 5 months, I have not experienced super long hold times (maybe 15 min was the max). Talked to live humans who knew their job and were very very willing to assist. Had easy access to the website (never found it down). I got a bit frustrated with processes and paperwork, but then we all know that can be improved and it is no worse (perhaps better) and working through the purchasing departments at major Tech firms. And them recently, I got a letter to call them, and they are requesting I come in person - which I will gladly do (the office is open and not far away), for the purpose of verifying in person that I am who I say I am (hmmm ID laws, what a concept).

I am sure all of this can be streamlined and process improved, however to do so in our current government system would take and RFI, RFP, award process that would protested by Oracle, Microsoft, AWS and every other tech firm. Then 3 years to develop. By that time out of date. So perhaps, some of the craziness is good.

CISA pen-tester says 100-strong red team binned after DOGE canceled contract

CISA's statement on the "cancellation"

https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/news/statement-cisas-red-team

CISA’s Red Team is among the best in the world and remains laser focused on helping our federal and critical infrastructure partners identify and mitigate their most significant vulnerabilities and weaknesses. This has not changed.

Contrary to inaccurate reporting, CISA has not “laid off” our Red Team. CISA has taken action to terminate contracts where the agency has been able to find efficiencies and eliminate duplication of effort. As good stewards of the taxpayer dollar and in accordance with good fiscal governance practices, CISA regularly reviews contracts across the agency to ensure that we have the capabilities that we need and that we are allocating resources in ways that make the most impact. This was a contract action that did not impact the employment status of CISA personnel.

CISA’s Red Teams continue their work without interruption. The team works directly with network defenders, system administrators, and other technical staff to address strengths and weaknesses across critical infrastructure networks and systems. They continue to assist organizations in refining their detection, response, and hunt capabilities to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure from a range of threats.

Evaluate this: A VM benchmark that uses 'wrong' price and config data

Trevor, please feel free to email us with your questions at [e-mail]

Happy to respond. Also, as I mentioned on twitter, IOmark is free for 30 days, thus if you want to set up a test in your lab, let me know.

Supreme Court closes court-shopping loophole for patent trolls

Re: The game is afoot!

From Law360 article on patents: One of its goals was to address the large number of patent infringement lawsuits by providing new ways for parties to avoid “unnecessary litigation.”[1] Surprisingly, the AIA did little to stem the ever-increasing tide of patent litigation. In fact, from 2010 to 2013, the number of lawsuits increased 120 percent to a high of 6,114,[2] with nearly a quarter filed in the Eastern District of Texas.[3] And the filings in the first half of 2014 promise to match or surpass this new record.