> DW> Unless there are accountants and people with specific knowledge about the
> DW> systems in question involved, they really don't know what they are
> DW> looking at. Some of Elon's statements, where they don't seem to have a
> DW> keen grasp on default dates, makes this lack of knowledge very evident.
> We can all grasp exactly what they're doing - we're nerds - they're going over
Unless we've all worked on mainframes on government systems that use older
programming languages, like COBOL, I don't think we all can. Elon, as
smart as he is, obviously doesn't have a grasp on it.
> ... I'm just saying; this ISN'T a conspiracy about peoples private info - at
> least call it what it is... Musk is gutting all the left woke expenditures and
> once cut will try to only approve things that align w/ MAGA. On THAT front I
> might agree, but Elon Musk (and his highly paid team) aren't going to sell our
> data to the dark net... come on!
I never said it was a conspiracy. What I did bring up was that they stood
up a website that was immediately hacked, exposing the data behind it to whoever
wanted it. In this day and age, if they don't know how to secure a website,
they are not the "wiz kids" that Elon is promoting them as. They might not sell
the data, but whoever hacks it will certainly do so if it contains any data of
value -- like personally identifying information (PII) -- at all.
So, if there is a conspiracy, that conspiracy would be that there are a
bunch of less-than-competent kids who know little about data security that
are mucking about in federal systems.
Musk recently made some statement, without evidence, that there were a
bunch of 150 year olds in the SSA system. I don't know the specifics of
that system but I would 100% guarantee you that if that system was using IBM
DB2, he would have made the statement that there were a bunch of 124 year
olds in the system because a null date on an IBM DB2 database is 19010101.
How do I know that? I have worked on mainframe systems. Whatever system
the SSA are using uses 1875 for a similar reason... when the system was
developed, that date was "really old" and was therefore a value you could
plug into a date field (that won't accept all zeroes or spaces) and your
programs would be coded to know it meant "no date."
If they were including forensic accountants and/or anyone familiar with
the systems in question in their inqueries, they could make the group a
lot closer to perfect and experienced using proven methods of finding
fraud.
As it is, they found USAID -- easy, low-hanging fruit -- but will step in
it pretty deep if they keep mucking about.
* SLMR 2.1a * Florida bumper sticker: DON'T SHOOT! I'M LOCAL!
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