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Minister in Charge of Japan's Cybersecurity Says He Has Never Used a Computer (nytimes.com)
Futurepower(R) shares a report: A lot of people don't use computers. Most of them aren't in charge of a nation's cybersecurity. But one is. Japanese lawmakers were aghast on Wednesday when Yoshitaka Sakurada, 68, the minister who heads the government's cybersecurity office, said during questioning in Parliament that he had no need for the devices, and appeared confused when asked basic technology questions. "I have been independently running my own business since I was 25 years old," he said. When computer use is necessary, he said, "I order my employees or secretaries" to do it. [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source.] "I don't type on a computer," he added.
Asked by a lawmaker if nuclear power plants allowed the use of USB drives, a common technology widely considered to be a security risk, Mr. Sakurada did not seem to understand what they were. "I don't know details well," he said. "So how about having an expert answer your question if necessary, how's that?" The comments were immediately criticized. "I can't believe that a person who never used a computer is in charge of cybersecurity measures," said Masato Imai, an opposition lawmaker.
Asked by a lawmaker if nuclear power plants allowed the use of USB drives, a common technology widely considered to be a security risk, Mr. Sakurada did not seem to understand what they were. "I don't know details well," he said. "So how about having an expert answer your question if necessary, how's that?" The comments were immediately criticized. "I can't believe that a person who never used a computer is in charge of cybersecurity measures," said Masato Imai, an opposition lawmaker.
I could argue that the US president knows a similar amount about politics or diplomatics, but then I guess that honor could be extended to most in his administration.
See guys, now that it happens in another country is when you see it is a weird thing.
Did you say the same when a Senator with all of two years of experience in the US Senate and no actual leadership experience ever became President in 2008?
This is much better than having someone who thinks he is a cybersecurity expert after blacklisting a website on his home router. That guy would not think it's safe to plug in a random USB stick in a nuclear power plant terminal because "of course the plant has a firewall".
He at least KNOWS that he has to ask experts for technical questions. It's the half-knowledge that's most dangerous.
bickerdyke
Robert Moses, who tore up a bunch of New York City neighborhoods to build freeways, never drove a car. (He had a chauffeur drive him everywhere)
No, you don't have to be a lifetime Congressman/Senator to become a capable President. In fact I'd say it would be better if you were not part of the system - that's until we got one of the most useless people alive become president, someone whose only qualification is that he is not a politician, but fails at every other human metric...
Most science ministers lack a science degree and there have certainly been some decidedly uneducated education ministers. Defence ministers have rarely served in the armed forces and we once had a Chancellor of the Exchequer who could not balance his credit card. Sadly, in a democracy, the only qualification for the job that counts is that you got more votes than anyone else and all this requires is that you look like less of a drooling idiot than the other people standing for election...and sometimes even that isn't true.
Do you need a race car driver to run the national highway administration ?
Doing actual security work is probably the last thing anyone expects him to do and the last thing his job calls for.
What he is going to have to do is be the voice of his agency within the government
Insure it's properly funded.
Settle internal disputes.
Where he will have problems is making informed decisions about the merits of different technologies and given that technical people aren't even particularly useful there it's not that big a loss. Just think of how many technologies you thought were going to be the next big thing but nobody remembers anymore.
No, you don't have to be a lifetime Congressman/Senator to become a capable President. In fact I'd say it would be better if you were not part of the system - that's until we got one of the most useless people alive become president, someone whose only qualification is that he is not a politician, but fails at every other human metric...
I'm sure that almost full employment with actual wage growth finally starting to appear after 8 years of limp "recovery" because we had to "remake the US economy" [to be more "progressive" - Obama kinda left that part unsaid...] is "useless".
Or maybe you think "useful" leadership is giving a few hundred billion dollars to literally medieval religious fanatics trying to build nuclear weapons while setting up an "inspection" system that allows those same religious fanatics to declare areas that can't be inspected? Gee, you'd have to be REALLY FUCKING STUPID to think that kind of "leadership" is "useful".
The US isn't the only country with complete idiots running things.
He doesn't even understand the purpose of the organization he is running, you can replace him with a monkey and get the same results.
The same thing happens all the time in the UK. Important jobs are given out as rewards or to groom allies of the Prime Minister. The people in charge of stuff like education, the army, Wales and of course cybersecurity are normally completely unqualified and clueless. It's the job of the civil servants to explain everything to them and handle the detail.
Isn't this just the modern day version of how things have worked in England since at least 1066?
I suppose it is the same in most places. Sometimes it can work out if the subject does not require too much understanding of the technicalities and the opinions of experts is either easy to vulgarize or very consensual. In many subjects where the politician is going to be showered by propaganda from various lobbies who can simulate expertise, it won't do and it can lead to catastrophes.
If you read TFA, the guy is obviously a doofus. This is not his first.
I grew up in a country (Belgium) where a big chunk of the public is hostile to the very notion of expertise. They perceive it as arrogance. So incompetence is not only tolerated but touted as a form of modesty or some kind of righteous revenge of the legitimate "people" against the abusive "elites". So kakistocracy is actually a thing.
Of course, it must happen in many other countries. I just happen to know the one i grew up in.