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Pennsylvania CISO Fired Over Talk At RSA Conference

Posted by timothy on from the perfecting-the-art-of-the-ham-fist dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Pennsylvania's chief information security officer Robert Maley has been fired for publicly talking about a security incident involving the Commonwealth's online driving exam scheduling system. He apparently did not get the required approval for talking about the incident from appropriate authorities."

6 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Motormouth failed his talking test? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    You really don't see the story? This is a security breach involving a public computer system. That is, a system paid for by taxpayers and affecting said taxpayers.

    THERE SHOULD BE NO SECRETS WHEN TAXPAYERS' MONEY IS INVOLVED.

    Any and all information about a breach like this needs to be public immediately.

    SO THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN NO NEED TO GET "AUTHORIZATION" BEFORE DISCLOSING IT.

    Is that clear enough for you? Sheesh, it's no wonder America's in such a sad state these days.

  2. Re:Motormouth failed his talking test? by ircmaxell · · Score: 2, Informative

    You do realize that he didn't work for a company, don't you? He worked for the state government...

    --
    If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's no good
  3. The key paragraph by Wintermute__ · · Score: 5, Informative

    The important paragraph in TFA:

    "Maley's dismissal comes amid ongoing budget and staff cuts at Pennsylvania's IT security organization, the source said. Over the past 18 months to two years, the administration has cut information security budgets by close to 38%, and staff by 40%. They also put a "lockdown" on talking about cybersecurity, the source claimed."

    Now there's a good plan: If you don't talk about it, no one will know you have a problem, and you can save all that money you were spending on those annoying security types.

  4. sounds like an invitation by oh-dark-thirty · · Score: 2, Informative

    Another telling fact from the article is that the security staff and budget have both been cut by upwards of 40%...no wonder they don't want anybody talking...

  5. He was fired by Brenda Orth, CIO in the OA by tlambert · · Score: 4, Informative

    Who fired him?

    According to public records having to do with reporting structure, he would have been fired by Brenda Orth, CIO (Chief Information Officer) in the OA (Office of Administration, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania). The reporting chain is easily verifiable using either the Google cached copy of their page, or the Internet Way Back Machine.

    She basically reports to the state Governors staff, so there's no telling how far up hill you'd have to go to find the source of the firing, but as his immediate supervisor, whe would have been the one to pull the trigger.

    -- Terry

  6. Re:Motormouth failed his talking test? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Do you really want the taxpayers having the root password?

    I'll give them to you. There are actually two root passwords to the Constitution: "terrorism" and "child pornography". By using either password, you can bypass any of the security protections or protocols built into the document, and you can invalidate its signatures.

    Four actually:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Horsemen_of_the_Infocalypse