A New Jam-Packed Biden Executive Order Tackles Cybersecurity, AI, and More (wired.com) 55
U.S. President Joe Biden has issued a comprehensive cybersecurity executive order, four days before leaving office, mandating improvements to government network monitoring, software procurement, AI usage, and foreign hacker penalties.
The 40-page directive aims to leverage AI's security benefits, implement digital identities for citizens, and address vulnerabilities that have allowed Chinese and Russian intrusions into U.S. government systems. It requires software vendors to prove secure development practices and gives the Commerce Department eight months to establish mandatory cybersecurity standards for government contractors.
The 40-page directive aims to leverage AI's security benefits, implement digital identities for citizens, and address vulnerabilities that have allowed Chinese and Russian intrusions into U.S. government systems. It requires software vendors to prove secure development practices and gives the Commerce Department eight months to establish mandatory cybersecurity standards for government contractors.
wait... (Score:4, Insightful)
...implement digital identities for citizens...
Not sure how I feel about that one.
Re: wait... (Score:5, Interesting)
They already exist so I just want to know what that means.
Governments love making up more ID numbers. One person could have a SSN, ITIN, Passport number, ID/DL number, MBI, HIC, and CIN. And that's without even leaving the state they were born in.
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And they're all on the darkweb and in China's databases.
People (not you, just in general) need to stop pretending our ear-tag serial numbers are secrets.
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You make it sound like government agencies make up ID numbers for fun. You should know as well as anyone how difficult it is to keep track of a large number of people without issuing ID numbers. I'd be willing to bet you also have a pretty good idea about why different organizations would want or need to issue their own and why we don't just use SSN or ITIN everywhere.
-- John Smith, New York, NY
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I'd be willing to bet you also have a pretty good idea about why different organizations would want or need to issue their own and why we don't just use SSN or ITIN everywhere.
We do use SSN or ITIN everywhere. Then we use a bunch of other numbers as well which are associated with it.
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I don't see my SSN anywhere on my driver's license, passport, etc.
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If you have a RealID, it's encoded in that 2D dot code on the back.
Re:wait... (Score:5, Interesting)
...implement digital identities for citizens...
Not sure how I feel about that one.
I think Biden is referring to greater investment in login.gov and id.me, both of which are used to securely log into US Federal government systems. Other countries have the same thing. Secure digital IDs are like a passport now. The Netherlands' version is called DigID.
My passport is from 2016 and even though I have to renew within a year, it still has a RFID chip. This is just an evolution.
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id.me is a private company. Every dollar they grift in profit is a dollar of taxpayer money wasted.
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Then what? What’s the next step in your nefarious plan? SSN should never be used as an ID.
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It shouldn't, but it is constantly, and this won't change that.
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And that's why I'm for executing a dedupe on the Social Security Administration database- with extreme prejudice for fakes.
Wait till Trump has them again (Score:3)
If you think this is questionable (which some of these orders are) wait until Trump gets a hold of them. He's already tasking some congressman in New Jersey to write up an executive order banning off shore wind https://apnews.com/article/tru... [apnews.com] . Thanks in advanced for protecting America from green energy Trump!
I hope all these people's children and grand children who buy into this garbage remember their actions decades from now every time they think about how their quality of life has been diminished by gl
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https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov... [noaa.gov]
Is U.S. offshore wind development linked to any whale deaths?
We work with our partners to analyze and understand the causes of death when we are able, following the science and data. At this point, there is no scientific evidence that noise resulting from offshore wind site characterization surveys could potentially cause whale deaths. There are no known links between large whale deaths and ongoing offshore wind activities.
Nice try though!
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Failed idea? Did Earth's winds suddenly stop?
Never mind we'll never get anywhere near as much power for our finite money with nuclear as we do with wind https://changeoracle.com/2022/... [changeoracle.com] .
Having some nuclear on the grid for some always on baseload isnt the worst idea but 100% all in on nuclear is a gigantic waste of money.
Re: Wait till Trump has them again (Score:1)
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That too. The fact that we don't have any kind of nuclear waste disposal solution in this country is a significant point against widespread nuclear.
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Especially since most nuclear waste can be recycled into new reactors. It's dangerous *because it is still energetic*.
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Wind stops regularly but unpredictably.
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...implement digital identities for citizens...
Not sure how I feel about that one.
This was in the context of benefits eligibility, but it's also exactly the kind of system Texas, Florida, others should have implemented as part of an age validation requirements for websites they don't like. Instead of telling site operators to figure it out and normalizing submitting photos of your state ID to sketchy websites, or driving traffic to sketchier international or underground sites that DGAF.
The use of “Yes/No” validation services, also referred to as attribute validation services, can enable more privacy-preserving means to reduce identity fraud. These services allow programs to confirm, via a privacy-preserving “yes” or “no” response, that applicant-provided identity information is consistent with information already contained in official records, without needing to share the contents of those official records.
A whole lot of the internet should have anonymous age verification IMO. We check ID in real life. If a
Law making by fiat (Score:2)
While the Executive Order has been around for a long time, it's only been since 2001 and the beginning of the Imperial Presidency that it was used to any great extent, and now its abuse is getting thoroughly out of hand. Mind, there isn't a chance in Hell that the congresscritters can stop their backstabbing and petty bickering long enough to create legislation on any of these issues, but that doesn't mean that the Executive can just arbitrarily dictate to the rest of us what our future is going to look li
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but that doesn't mean that the Executive can just arbitrarily dictate to the rest of us what our future is going to look like.
Or can they?
Re:Law making by fiat (Score:4, Insightful)
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Excuse me? Have you ever listened to el Bunko? He won't give a rat's ass about whether his order violates the Constitution and neither will his sycophantic potted plants he's installing in the agencies. Most are only there because they have money and have found that by buttering el Bunko's ass, they can use government to boost their old companies and/or industries.
They'll simply assume the position and follow the EO until some outside organization sues. And then they'll drag it out in court all the while fo
Re:Law making by fiat (Score:4, Interesting)
The US (collectively) failed to learn from the first Trump administration. It doubled down.
As an outsider, my top preference would be a recovery, but if the choices are the US falling apart or turning into a coordinated fascist oligarchy with the might of the US military behind it? I'm hoping for dissolution. There are a lot of individual states the rest of the world could get along with, but a single USA presents more challenges every day.
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I've never heard him called as such but reading the post it's very clearly Trump.
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Bunko is another name for 'con artist', so he rather obviously meant Rump.
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Actually the best way to -not- get taken seriously is to regularly post stupidities while using the NIC "iAmWaySmarterThanYou" even though almost every post demonstrates at best a 12 year-old's understanding of technology and the world in general.
Re: Law making by fiat (Score:1)
Re: Law making by fiat (Score:1)
Re:Law making by fiat (Score:5, Informative)
While the Executive Order has been around for a long time, it's only been since 2001 and the beginning of the Imperial Presidency that it was used to any great extent
Interesting choice of start date there. Of course, "Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Kind of cool." is a quote from the Clinton [nytimes.com] administration. As far as "great extent" goes, FDR issued more executive orders per year of his very long presidency than Dubya did in his entire eight year tenure. The actual data [statista.com] about presidential executive orders is pretty interesting, and this appears to be a phenomenon that began in the late 19th century.
Oddly enough, Joe Biden has been one of if not the most restrained presidents in the past 150 years with regard to the number of executive orders he's issued--he's about tied with Dubya's dad (he has a few days left to catch up and only needs about half a dozen more), the two of them issuing the fewest since Chester A. Arthur was president.
None of this, of course, relates to the content of those orders, just their number. But laying this at Dubya's feet doesn't really seem to match up with history very well. I'd also not hesitate to note that the amount of power that has been delegated to the executive by congress is absurd, and those sons of bitches should be doing their job rather than allowing the president and the bureaucracy to remain so unchecked and unbalanced.
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While I'm sure you're right about the number of them Shrub's lunatics really got down in the weeds as far as directing the various parts of the Executive Branch to implement their programs, to the point where some of them had to be withdrawn because they were blatantly directing staffers to violate the law.
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Oh, they don't care about facts. All that matters is that they feel like Biden's use of executive orders is the worst abuse of power in the history of the presidency. This is the same way they "know" that crime is out-of-control, even though it has fallen by half since it peaked in 1993, falling in all categories with robbery almost reaching a historic low.
It's, like, all about the vibes, man. Tune in to those alternative facts and get a groovy outrage buzz going.
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Posting this for reference. https://www.federalregister.go... [federalregister.gov]
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I mostly remember it because he was the first (in my memory anyway) to have to withdraw an EO because he was telling workers to blatantly break laws.
Government bans incompetence (Score:2)
wha? (Score:1)
...AI's security benefits....
Umm...
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Haven't you heard? The "S" in "AI" stands for security! And the second "S" is for safety.
Linux ML will get colorful! (Score:2)
Check out section 2 part E, where there is a directive for 3 letter agencies to submit patches to FOSS projects....
Then cross reference with ALL OF SECTION 6, where they want to use AI to generate said patches!
The degree of profanity on Linux Kernel Mailing list will be legendary if this actually sticks!
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They can submit patches... nothing forcing projects to actually accept them.
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I didnt say they had to.
More, the inevitable when Linus 'says no' and 'excludes AI generated patches', with resulting fireworks, as NSA and pals keep submitting them, as the EO directs.
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Check out section 2 part E, where there is a directive for 3 letter agencies to submit patches to FOSS projects....
Then cross reference with ALL OF SECTION 6, where they want to use AI to generate said patches!
The degree of profanity on Linux Kernel Mailing list will be legendary if this actually sticks!
Good lord. The one thing we don't need is for FOSS projects to get crapflooded with AI generated patches for this, that, the other, and that thing that may have needed a patch six years ago but the AI just stumbled over in the bug reports today. There won't be enough hours in the human reviewers lives to stem the flow of bullshit. It'll pretty much grind any FOSS project to a halt that has to filter out this nonsense. Maybe that's the point? Kill FOSS projects by crapflooding them with patches until they ca
Pork (Score:2)
Four days before he leaves office, US president Joe Biden has issued a sweeping cybersecurity directive
Gotta get that pork secured, before the next administration comes in. Wonder who paid him off, at the last possible minute?
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Government says it needs more government (Score:2)
I'm so sick of corporate Democrats (Score:5, Insightful)
They had four years to get this done. So Biden signs an executive order during his last few days in office that the incoming Trump regime will dismantle or disregard, and we're supposed to give the Wall Street Democratic Party credit for acting to protect voters from rapacious special interests.
Screw 'em. They deserved to lose.
AI's security benefits (Score:2)