In the past year, the U.S. government has been ridiculed for hacking into citizen phone calls and private data. This greatly violates the privacy of citizens and has caused an uproar in regards to governmental actions. Not only has our own government been listening in and reading upon our conversations, but other countries have supposedly also hacked into our own government data. According to CNN, an estimated 18 million federal employees at the Office of Personnel Management had their data hacked by an unknown outside source. The government had acknowledged only 4.2 million employees had been hacked, however as further investigation continues the number is expected to grow. Investigators have been quick to point fingers at China for this incident, however they deny all accusations. Others believe that the OPM hack last April was never been fully fixed. Therefore security systems were never improved and this has caused an even greater hack to occur. A contracting company by the name of KeyPoint Government Solutions was supposed to take action in improving the flaws in the governmental security system however they were never actually fixed. Investigators believe that KeyPoint may have created their own access to the OPM system and are behind the data intrusion. This event has caused serious frustration among government employees and lawmakers because Obama's administration has seemed to lessen the severity of this issue. This data hack is a problem that concerns the protection of all citizens and their privacy and it is currently being violated which raises an even greater problem Now the greatest question arises: Can Washington keep the United States data secure?
- Are American citizens subject to data hacking at any given moment?
- How should the federal government take action in this invasion of privacy?
- How does this violate our rights as citizens of the U.S.?
- Why do you think the United States is quick to accuse China of the data hack?
http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/22/politics/opm-hack-18-milliion/index.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/01/us-usa-cybersecurity-opm-idUSKCN0R14UX20150901
4 comments:
I truly believe that data aggregation by the National Security Agency and federal government would be a positive force in protecting citizens if human error were removed. Currently, those who work in massive facilities that receive data are the vulnerabilities in the systems themselves. Humans make mistakes of course, but when a "mistake" causes the destruction of livelihood, it is more than just a "mistake". Regardless of the obvious violations of privacy, a value many claim to be the most important and most defining of all American values, I simply cannot see the benefits of such a flawed system. This new exposé is a sign to me that, while the government itself is not interested in the average person's data (and it never has been), outside forces purging the federal databases are as malicious and intelligent as ever. It is clear to me that the Federal government is incompetent in improving their security systems or even contracting reputable companies to assist them. Unfortunately, telling government to control itself is similar to yelling at a brick wall, in addition to being a problem outlined by James Madison in Federalist #51. That is why I cannot think of any scenario in which the government would be obliged to control itself and not instead pretend to control itself and hide future data aggregation from us more carefully. As for the Chinese, there are very few countries that can produce people intelligent enough to break the encryption of the United States federal database security, China happens to be one of those countries however. Beyond that fact, it is unknown whether or not these hackers are appointed by the Chinese government or just happen to be hackers from China. To most, including me, that sounds like the same thing.
I believe that the government is allowed to hack into people's data with a probable cause, in which the government would be protecting the citizens. For example, if the government believes that someone is involved in a terrorist group or plan, the government should be able to hack that person's data to find out the truth and protect its citizens. Yes, this does violate people's privacy and yes, people will complain about their rights/freedoms being restricted, yet government was set up to protect their citizens from any threats they deem are dangerous to the lives of society. On the other hand, the U.S. government hasn't proved that any security tactics or defenses really are reliable or effective. This is a huge problem because like I said before the government is here to protect us from any dangers to our nations and when the government isn't able to defend itself against these "cyber-attacks" or "cyber-hacks", how will they defend us in bigger situations? The reason why we,Americans, accuse China of hacking our systems too often is that they have a substantial amount of intelligence that often times is too smart for our government. In addition, many of the successful data hacks on our government were done by people in China whether or not the person was instructed by the Chinese government.
It is understandable for the U.S. public to view these hacks by the government as a violation of privacy because in many ways it is. The Constitution clearly states in Amendment IV that people have the right to be "secure in their person, houses, papers, and effect.” This right could be applied in this situation because accessing citizen’s private data without permission or warrant would certainly make said citizen feel insecure. On the other hand, these data hacks may not be all bad. For the most part these hacks have been on government officials, not just regular samaritan. Now that government officials know they may be judged by the people at any moment it is possible for these hacks to sway them to keep a more honest lifestyle. However, again there is flaw: while it may keep government officials honest, there is surely confidential information that is at risk of exposure. Furthermore, the possibility that these unaccounted for hacks are coming from the Chinese government, or any government, is a threat to our national security, which, again, is guaranteed to the citizens in the Constitution. It is likely that these accusations are directed to China because that is where the majority of cyber crime is based out of, however this being said, that is no indicator that the Chinese government itself is responsible — it may be Chinese citizens hired by other organizations to hack the US government. Either way, what is more dangerous than the exposure of information by hacking is where this information is going and as long as that remains a mystery the United States is in definite danger.
Technology plays an important role in today's society. People are constantly on their phones, tablets and computers communicating with others. While first thinking about the data hack as a citizen of the United States, I was disturbed by the idea that the government could have access to the personal data of millions of citizens. The data that is encrypted can include social security numbers, family history, financial history, educational background, health records, etc. Hacking into the personal information of citizens certainly violates their rights. People have the right to keep their personal information private. If they want to share it with others, it should be their personal decision. An individual's data should not be in the hands of the government. Moreover, I agree and disagree with Melo's statement that the government is looking out for the best interests of the people and therefore should have a right to hack into people's data. I agree that the government wants the best for its citizens and therefore would hack the data to try and prevent a larger issue from taking place. I disagree with Melo in the fact that they should have a right to hack into people's data. I definitely see how finding personal information of citizens will allow the government to go "behind the scenes", but I think the government should at least ask the citizens whether or not they are okay with the government discovering their files. Another possible circumstance would be if the government told the particular individual what they were looking for in their data file. Furthermore, I think the United States is quick to accuse China as they are a country that is extremely advanced in the fields of science, mathematics and technology. They also have the intellectual capacity to break through a a security system.
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