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Feds Now Allowed To Use Internet

Posted by samzenpus on from the welcome-to-the-web dept.

fast66 writes "Nextgov reports that a new court order allows the Department of the Interior to connect to the Internet, six years after the federal agency was ordered to disconnect. District Judge James Robertson wrote in his ruling, 'I find that the consent order is of no further use and must be vacated.' 'The ... disconnected offices and bureaus may be connected.' He added that his ruling was based not on evidence but 'on a legal conclusion that it is not my role to weigh IT security risks.'"

6 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Well he's right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It is not the job of a judge to weigh that risk.

  2. That was silly.. by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, a judge should not be making smart calls what governmental policy should be. Silly laws will be paid for by Congress, but I digress.

    Is it smart that the US governmental departments can now get online? Not in my opinion. These networks should be segregated from the unwashed internet as there is no data security or guarantees of anything except being hacked. Even the most "uber secure" area can be hacked with varying degrees of effort, either externally or internally. This just opens a vector that was once unopened.

    Not smart.

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    1. Re:That was silly.. by icebike · · Score: 4, Insightful

      > Even the most "uber secure" area can be hacked
      > with varying degrees of effort, either externally
      > or internally. This just opens a vector that was
      > once unopened.

      Excuse me, Did you RTFA?

      How is the Bureau of Indian Affairs in need of security in excess of the Defense Department, Congress, the IRS, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission?

      I bet you were around here dumping on the Federal Government response to Katrina too! You can't have it both ways.

      You can not have efficient and responsive government agencies when you relegate them to 1960s era technology.

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      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    2. Re:That was silly.. by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Who said I want an efficient government???

      I want a slow-as-molasses-in-antartica government that will make as few laws as possible. If Congress knows they will only pass 100 bills per year, you'd hope they would check them better.

      Now, we have a somewhat eficent government that can and will make laws based on "save the children", "kill pedophiles" or "teh evul terrorists" without any thoughts on how those laws can be used in other, unforeseen ways.

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    3. Re:That was silly.. by j79zlr · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think you are making a very poor assumption that the laws weren't indeed passed explicitly for those "other, unforeseen ways."

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      I'm not not licking toads.
  3. Re:No internet connectivity since 2001? by falcon5768 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Well lets be honest here

    1) If their cables where unplugged in the first place, their IT department is made of fail. There is no reason to NOT have a LAN regardless of your internet need.

    2) If their IT was worth the scratch they are getting paid, they pulled the updates needed and applied them without the use of autoupdate.

    Granted I fear I just missed the joke, but hey its /. that wouldnt be anything new here.

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