To The Editor:
Recent news has revealed controversial actions on the internet. The Presidential Election has exposed shenanigans in cyber space as well as skewed polls, media bias, disappointed political and foreign donors.
In 2013, Target retailer had 40 million debt and credit card accounts hacked. To retain customers, Target immediately went public, replaced with “chip and pin” cards, and repaid customers’ identity theft and false charges. Estimated cost was $100 million plus lost sales.
Only now, are years of hacking of federal government agencies being admitted. Since 2014, hackers have accessed and copied data from U.S. Postal Service (800,000 employee records), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, State Department, WHITE HOUSE “unclassified network”, and Office of Personnel Management (22 million federal workers).
Hackers identified so far include China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, sub-contractors (Target, OPM), Wikileaks, Dcleaks.com. and Guccifer 2.0.
Seventeen USA intelligence agencies have reported to President Obama these “intrusions” for nearly eight years and recommended double passwords, encrypted data, retaliation, etc.. Last September, 2016, Obama said, “What we cannot do is have a situation where this becomes the wild, wild West, where countries that have significant cyber capacity start engaging in unhealthy competition or conflict through these means.”
But when the Presidential Election came along, Obama’s attitude changed and his Administrative powers were brought to bear. OPM director Katherine Archulita “resigned”. He sanctioned four Russian officers, evicted 35 “spies”, and closed compounds in Long Island and Maryland and hinted more to come.
Cyber War among nations, corporations, ISIS, etc. started years ago. Obama’s inaction for eight years has put the USA in serious “existential” danger. Our 17 intelligence agencies need greater attention and enforcement. Divisive self-serving “blame games” must be replaced with unified survival in this dangerous, destructive, deadly world.
Sincerely,
John Terneus
Yukon, Oklahoma
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CapitolBeatOK welcomes letters to the editor. All submissions should be no more than 400 words and e-mailed to editor@capitolbeatok.com. Please include a contact phone number for verification purposes. All letters are subject to editing. Letters to the editor will remain posted for one week at the editor’s discretion.