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> Hilarious security theater, My god, the dumb, it burns...
Vigilant
post Fri 8th July 2011, 7:26pm
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From here:
Security theater

"By this time, I think every arbitrator has wiped their hard drives and reinstalled their systems (or if they haven't, they should have, Jehochman is right that even top-of-the-line security software can miss things), so even a thorough forensic inspection of everyone's computer would be pointless."

Risker is so wrong on this, it's barely believable.

What has happened is that, if the leaker is a current ARBCOM member, they have buried all evidence (and even the possibility discussion) of of whomever was the real leaker.

"Oh no, I formatted my drive as Risker reccomended! No need to look here..."

One would think, that a group whose only product/project is an online database on a set of clustered servers would have true security professionals on staff before letting community volunteers have access, apparently unrestricted, to sensitive personal data.

Look at Sony, who was lax with hard security, and the extreme beatings that were administered in the press and blogs for their failure to safeguard customer data.

Shameful wikimedia foundation, just shameful.
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Ottava
post Fri 8th July 2011, 8:24pm
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Something in the first post got me thinking: what is to keep the leaker from, say, dropping little hints to an Arbitrator that they might not like in order to try and get the paranoid to mob attack that individual? It would seem a perfect win - 1. expose ArbCom secrets, 2. embarrass the WMF, 3. get rid of an Arb, and 4. make everyone so paranoid that they are no longer able to operate effectively.

We don't really know the motivation behind getting the information or exposing it. The only way for the Arbitrators to combat the above would be to take a position of "who cares if it was exposed" and preempt future releases by putting up some info from the major cases not yet released. That would take the thunder out of a leaker. Instead, they seem to be falling into a situation that the first paragraph could take advantage of and really hurt some people.

This post has been edited by Ottava: Fri 8th July 2011, 8:24pm
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Posts in this topic
Vigilant   Hilarious security theater   Fri 8th July 2011, 7:26pm
EricBarbour   That's how Arbcom rolls. That's how they...   Fri 8th July 2011, 8:10pm
radek   Heh. Now there are 3RR requests that are longer ...   Sat 9th July 2011, 10:10am
Zoloft   I will quote Will BeBack here without further com...   Fri 8th July 2011, 8:11pm
EricBarbour   Yes, there is another confidential area, Mr. McWh...   Fri 8th July 2011, 8:21pm
Herschelkrustofsky   Yes, there is another confidential area, Mr. McW...   Fri 8th July 2011, 8:27pm
SpiderAndWeb   Is it *that* hard to pull up the server logs and c...   Fri 8th July 2011, 8:36pm
the fieryangel   Is it *that* hard to pull up the server logs and ...   Fri 8th July 2011, 8:46pm
EricBarbour   A more interesting question might be how Mr. McWhi...   Fri 8th July 2011, 9:03pm
Sololol   Something in the first post got me thinking: what...   Fri 8th July 2011, 8:57pm
Vigilant   Something in the first post got me thinking: what...   Sat 9th July 2011, 8:19am
cyofee   A more interesting question might be how Mr. McWh...   Sat 9th July 2011, 9:39am
Bielle   I don't have the eponymous 300 posts nor any ...   Sat 9th July 2011, 4:31pm
gomi   [quote name='cyofee' post='279673' date='Sat 9th J...   Sat 9th July 2011, 5:57pm
powercorrupts   [quote name='cyofee' post='279673' date='Sat 9th ...   Sat 9th July 2011, 6:24pm
gomi   I wondered why I never got an invite to this ...   Sat 9th July 2011, 6:27pm
powercorrupts   I wondered why I never got an invite to this ...   Sat 9th July 2011, 6:54pm
gomi   Actually - what is your policy on socking here? I ...   Sat 9th July 2011, 7:10pm
It's the blimp, Frank   I wondered why I never got an invite to this ...   Sat 9th July 2011, 7:39pm
melloden   [quote name='cyofee' post='279673' date='Sat 9th ...   Sat 9th July 2011, 7:18pm
Tarc   One also must be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, fri...   Sat 9th July 2011, 7:19pm
It's the blimp, Frank   Has there ever been a serious problem with multipl...   Sat 9th July 2011, 7:16pm


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