A New Jam-Packed Biden Executive Order Tackles Cybersecurity, AI, and More (wired.com) 127
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:5, 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
Re: wait... (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
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Do you know why we don't use the same number everywhere, even if they're associated in a database?
It's not that hard to figure out.
I don't care what number they call it. (Score:2)
I want the system to be secure by design. I didn't assume it was 'yet another standard' like you mention, but a replacement that would work online securely and effectively.
I keep thinking the it's dumb we don't have an officially required online identity method beyond 'tell me that secrete everyone else already knows' or 'the thing you wrote down and forgot, but hackers recorded automatically'.
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, Insightful)
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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Thanks in advanced for protecting America from green energy Trump!
As further proof this is nothing more than political posturing, we're stuck with refrigerators that can literally explode [wftv.com] due to genuinely overzealous climate legislation, but the incoming administration hasn't said a peep about that. I'd be thrilled to see that idiocy rolled back, since we're talking something that only contributes roughly 2% to 4% of total CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emissions, but nope, the switch to flammable low GWP refrigerants just never really gave the right wing the same sort of
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Ha, I hadnt read about that. Glad I've got an old fridge...
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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*.
Re: Wait till Trump has them again (Score:2)
Nuclear is the most expensive kind of power, and that matters when you have capitalism. And reprocessing makes it MORE expensive, just ask France.
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How many centuries are you amortizing that for?
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How many reactors do we currently have that will do that. How about in the entire world?
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The point is that new reactors can do it- and thus we should be building new reactors, rather than reopening ancient and wasteful technologies.
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Ah, so we should go all in on these massively expensive reactors https://sgp.fas.org/othergov/d... [fas.org] that have not been tested in any real world scenario?
Boy, the price tag keeps going up for nuclear, doesn't it? First we need regular light-water reactors that provide less power than dollars spent than pretty much any other power source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] and now we need breeder reactors which cost twice as much as light-water ones to handle the waste.
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Wind stops regularly but unpredictably.
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So what? That doesnt in anyway make it a "failed idea". It generates quite a bit of extremely clean power for both the US and the rest of the world and for a good price as well. Seems like a winner to me.
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Wind Power has its place- but as part of a decentralized grid-free energy system. You can't count on it for anything other than charging batteries.
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It's amazing to me that you're telling me this. We literally use wind power to power our grid for all sorts of things and so do most other first world nations and many developing ones. A simple look at the world around you will tell you that what you're telling me is false.
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We can only use wind power to energize the grid with fossil fuel backup stations on standby.
This is getting better as battery power improves.
Germany found out the hard way during the Dunkelflaute that they shouldn't have removed fossil fuel energy from the grid.
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Ah, so you're prior post was in fact completely false as I stated. Thankyou for the confirmation.
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For not wanting to discuss things, you sure reply a lot.
My point is that you can't count on wind for 24x7 coverage of the grid. I don't know why you have a problem with that statement, but it certainly is not based in either meteorology or physics.
Re: Wait till Trump has them again (Score:2)
Wind stops regionally and not at all unpredictably. You can tell it's happening while it's happening, and the more geographically distributed the turbines are, the easier it is and the more notice you have.
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Funny, I was just saying that elsewhere in the thread.....
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You mean the wind farms that take more oil and resources to make than they will ever get back in their lifetime?
Well that's just not true https://yaleclimateconnections... [yaleclimat...ctions.org] .
As for the rest, the waste disposal problem with blades is certainly a bit of an issue but it's much less of an issue than nuclear waste and I'd rather have a wind farm blade disposal problem then exacerbate global warming by bringing back more non-renewables. Solar's great too but a diversity of sources is important with renewables.
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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
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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.
I'm just gonna keep this short and sweet: DO NOT WANT.
A whole lot of the internet should have anonymous age verification IMO. We check ID in real life.
We check ID in real life because there's no other gateways you have to pass through before existing in the real world. Some other entity has to provide you with internet access or you're not getting online. That's where the age check should be. Hell, with the exception of open WiFi access points, that's generally already the case with most service providers that you have to sign up for. Why do I need to verify my age multiple times across the web, w
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Because they don't know that you're an adult. All they know is that somebody who could prove they were an adult signed up for their service; they don't know that you're that person.
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Because they don't know that you're an adult. All they know is that somebody who could prove they were an adult signed up for their service; they don't know that you're that person.
And that's no different than how it works if you buy anything else that's age-restricted and then bring it home. As the purchasing adult, you're now responsible if someone underage is getting access to something they shouldn't. It's so bizarre that we've let parents shirk their responsibility and now expect the lawmakers to force every damn adult site on the entire web to clean up the mess, but that bottle of rum on my kitchen counter couldn't care less if someone under 21 tries to drink it.
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:5, 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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You're an outsider and have ZERO right to criticize anything in somebody else's country, you bigoted nazi.
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How do you walk without slipping on your own drool?
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How do you criticize other countries when your own has forgotten how to even have children?
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I've now read your profile.
You need a mental health professional. There's no way you're doing OK, your issues have to be impacting your quality of life. Get the help you need.
Re: Law making by fiat (Score:2)
I see you don't believe in free speech
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Free speech is a dangerous concept that was tried and failed.
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But that is true of the last 50 Presidents. Every single one of them.
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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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Not very clearly- every President in the last 50 years has taken bribes in return for appointments.
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From the above post we're discussing
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.
What other president is going to have the power to install "sycophantic potted plants" in agencies any time in the near future?
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That's what Biden did for the last 4 years. Heck Biden himself was a sycophanthic potted plant.
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So you think it's realistic to think that in Bidens last 4 days in office he's installing said "potted plants"? Why would a president be appointing multiple new heads of federal agencies when they can count on one hand how many days they have left in office?
I'm sorry you got caught making a dumb assumption, it happens. You're just making yourself look worse by pretending you came to any rational conclusions to the above though.
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That was 4 years ago that it was Biden's turn. And Obama's turn in 2008 and 2012, and Bush I's turn in 2000 and 2004.
Every bloody President in the last 50 years has rewarded their campaign workers and friends with government positions. Heck, it was even a major story line on an old 1970s sitcom- S1 E7 of Barney Miller has a drunk " E. J. Heiss, the Chief of the Bureau of Federal Regional Development and Planning for Underdeveloped Suburban Areas for Mines, Parks, and Indians"
If I was rewarded for that pos
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This is the second time you've tried to change the subject in this thread. We're talking about you not understanding which president was being discussed, not the validity of the adjectives used in the claim. Your response here is completely off topic from the point I initially addressed you on https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org] and I have no interest in discussing this with you as if you cant even understand the wording of things I have zero interest in talking about anything deeper with you.
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I don't participate in ad hominem attacks. The correct way to deal with this is to stick with the original subject- which to me is that this description can fit *every* president in recent memory.
Rule #1 of flame wars- deal with the idea, not the person.
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I don't participate in ad hominem attacks
Bullshit. You had no problem responding to my posts until it became clear you were being stupid and then you started changing the subject.
The correct way to deal with this is to stick with the original subject- which to me is that this description can fit *every* president in recent memory.
Jesus, what's wrong with you? I just told you this was the subject and all you're doing now is going back and restating your initial post https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org] which I've already refuted https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org] .
Past presidents cant be said to be "installing" anyone as they no longer have cabinets to appoint people to as the post we're discussing sta
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Jesus, what's wrong with you?
What's wrong with you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
I dug through your posts to figure out what the fuck you were talking about in your last reply to me, not only did I not see you participating in any such conversation (!) but you're bouncing off the walls with...like...everybody. Including this guy. Do you guys share a padded cell or something? And is rsilvergun in there with you? Because that would explain a lot.
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Yes, you're well known for following Slashdot posters you dont like and harassing them in the forums. I've seen you do it quite a few times. Am I the next Slashdot user to be subject to your incessant trolling?
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Yes, you're well known for following Slashdot posters you dont like and harassing them in the forums.
By whom? This is false. Not that I need to explain it, but I only do so when somebody starts making references to previous posts, either mine or theirs, so I can know what the fuck they're talking about. You did exactly that. So when I ask myself "wtf is this psycho talking about?", then I, like any other reasonable person, might want to find out. Where a psycho, like you, takes it as if I just took a peek under your skirt.
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Well there's your glaring hard on for rsilvergun that you're upset isnt reciprocated.
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That too is in your fucked up little head. He posts basically everywhere at all hours of the day. He can't even wipe his own ass without posting something stupid to slashdot. The only hard thing is to not notice him, especially because he changes the topic of every thread he replies to with some nonsense. I get why this hasn't occurred to you, you're basically living in your own little world that exists only in your mind where you think people, and even cnn apparently, say things they've never said, and you
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You didn't get ad hominem until this one.
You act like Trump is unique. He isn't. He's part of the same corruption that has been going on for at least the last 60 years.
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That would explain the short attention span and the lack of ability to understand that history is important. Thank you, ArmoredDragon, for explaining to me why this troll has zero memory of past presidents.
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Bunko is another name for 'con artist', so he rather obviously meant Rump.
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The best way to -not- get taken seriously when discussing serious issues is to use childish names for people.
Trump does it, which I find irritating, but so does everyone who hates him. Same thing applies to stupid names for Putin and everyone else not on the Cool Kids List of the Week.
Using stupid childish names just makes the person using them look intellectually deprived, in all cases.
It also makes it harder for people not on the inside of whatever social bubble they live in to understand wtf they're tal
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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: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.
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There also isn't a chance in Hell that any of Biden's 4500 executive orders will survive past Tuesday the 21st.
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It's not just because his was the longest administration, he signed more every year than any other President. FDR did abuse the power. Authoritarianism was very popular around the world at the time, and he didn't want to be left out.
EOs often lead to legislation. That's how the CIA came into being. They can also be overturned by Congress, later Presidents
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:3)
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?
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.
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They deserved to lose.
They deserved to lose to somebody better, not somebody worse. It's like pouring gasoline on your house fire because you're pissed off that the fire department is taking too long to arrive. There's a reason we have the expression "cutting off your nose to spite your face."
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Well, the voters decided Trump was better, so yours would seem to be the minority position.
Funny thing about popularity contests is that they don't always end up with the best choice by an objective standard as the winner. Take McDonald's for example - hugely popular, but their food is poor quality and quite unhealthy.
Trump didn't have to be "better" to win, the electorate simply had to be frustrated enough with the Democrats that Trump became the de facto way of saying "no" to their continued leadership. It's one of the most significant flaws of our two party system: a vote for the opposing pa
AI's security benefits (Score:2)
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