Embarrassing Stories Shed Light On US Officials' Technological Ignorance

colinneagle writes "Speaking at the SXSW Conference recently, Dr. Peter W. Singer, director of the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence, recalled one U.S. official who was 'about to negotiate cybersecurity with China' asking him to explain what the term 'ISP' (Internet Service Provider) means. This wasn't the only example of this lack of awareness. 'That's like going to negotiate with the Soviets and not knowing what "ICBM" means,' Dr. Singer said. 'And I've had similar experiences with officials from the UK, China and Abu Dhabi.' Similarly, Dr. Singer recalled one account in which Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of the U.S. Homeland Security Department from 2009 to 2013, admitted that she didn't use email 'because she just didn't think it was useful.' 'A Supreme Court justice also told me "I haven't got round to email yet" — and this is someone who will get to vote on everything from net neutrality to the NSA negotiations,' Dr. Singer said."

to this day...

[ganjadude]

The monitor *IS* The computer as far as my parents are concerned

AOL *IS* the internet... and email....

The hard drive *IS* known as gigabytes

Im sure others have similar stories

Re:Can we afford technically incompetent politicia

[TsuruchiBrian]

I don't think it's fair to say Kathleen Sebelius was technically challenged because the healthcare.gov website didn't work on time. Even if it were her fault, that the healthcare.gov launch went badly, it wouldn't be because of her technical skills, it would be because of her managerial skills.

Re:Old Man Yells At Cloud

[Ralph Wiggam]

Since when do you have to raise your arms above your chest to use a computer?

Re:An advantage

[Charliemopps]

There are STILL party lines. I work for a phone company, they are fairly common on farms. (Think of the elderly parents still living in the farmhouse and the kids living in a new house on the same lot, running the farm and taking car of their parents.