Are Hackers Smarter Than The Government’s IT Developers – By Dianna Tafazoli
The Director of the Office of  Personnel Management (OPM), Katherine Archuleta, became another ‘casualty of war’ when the records of millions of Federal workers active and retired were hacked compromising their safety and security. The Director testified on Capitol Hill and seemed to play down the severity and quantity of the data breach. However, unions differed with Ms. Archuleta’s perspective and began filing law suits against the agency.
Ms. Archuleta vowed that she would not step down when more and more calls for her resignation filled the Washington airways. Late Friday evening Ms. Archuleta went to the White Office and moments later, her resignation had been given and accepted by the President and an acting director was in place. Beth Cobert, U.S.. Chief Performance Officer and Deputy Director at the Office of Management and Budget will hold the reigns at OPM until a replacement is named.
The breach was not the original 4.1 million records initially reported by Director Archuleta, but more than 22.1 million records. Will getting rid of Katherine Archuleta fix OPM’s problems or the problem of hacking anywhere. I don’t think so. Criminals always seem to be smarter than the Police. They usually have better or more sophisticated weapons. And in this case, OPM is the police and the hackers are the criminals.  It would be a safe bet to say that the hackers know much more about IT than OPM or the rest of the government.
Accountability is mandatory at every level of management and non-management as well. However, I am not certain that hackers can be stopped anymore than we can stop many of the other ills we struggle with in this country. There are too many to name.  The remedy for hacking might rest squarely with what kind of information is placed in data banks, not whether the data can be hacked or not. The system needs to be revamped. It is too easy perhaps for hackers when databases use social security numbers, names and addresses. Data that is not easily deciphered is the key to controlling data breaches.
The world has gotten smaller and the world has changed so significantly from what it used to be 30, 40, 50, 60 or even 70 years ago. Yet, when applications are completed and information is requested, it is the same ‘old’ thing – name, social security number, address, phone number and on and on. If programmers are still dancing the same waltz with no new steps added to make it not rote to learn, then the hacker’s job is probably relatively easy.
The government cannot continue using the same ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies and expect to get Swiss banana pecan chocolate potato chips as a result. Stop data breaches, stop the hackers – change what goes into the data set. A change as small but as significant as what goes into the data set will confuse the hackers long enough so that by the time they unravel the system, you are two steps ahead changing the data input yet again. Security protection means constant change to stay ahead of the criminals.
Dianna Tafazoli
P.S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
