US Homeland Security chief reports breach at FEMA, fires 23 employees

US Homeland Security chief reports breach at FEMA, fires 23 employees(reuters.com)

40 points by clwg 261 days ago | 9 comments

arp242 261 days ago |

> Noem's statement gave few specifics about the nature of the breach except to blame FEMA's staff, two dozen of whom she said she had fired. Noem said the hack threatened "the entire Department and the nation as a whole" but at the same time said that "no American citizens were directly impacted." She added: "No sensitive data was extracted from any DHS networks."

So it's a breach that's extremely dangerous for the entire nation, but also there is no real impact on American citizens or extraction of sensitive data. Eh?

The entire thing smells of a pretext for a political purge. Either it's a minor incident hugely blown out of proportion, or it's just outright fabricated.

hmcq6 261 days ago |

I remember the last time Kristi Noem "fired" something

aspenmayer 261 days ago | |

For those out of the loop:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristi_Noem#No_Going_Back

quantified 261 days ago |

Nothing to do with Doge-stylists, of course.

SilverElfin 261 days ago |

> Noem said the hack threatened "the entire Department and the nation as a whole" but at the same time said that "no American citizens were directly impacted." She added: "No sensitive data was extracted from any DHS networks."

What does that even mean. It is either a problem or it isn’t.

Also interesting to read is the FEMA Katrina Declaration, linked to from this article:

https://www.standupforscience.net/fema-katrina-declaration

I have no doubt that there is some waste in all these agencies but the magnitude of change is so big for such a short time. Even if the leaders were excellent, they would need more time to understand the situation and make good choices. Zooming in on this breach, without more details, I find it hard to believe that these 23 people were the cause (versus some larger issue with the organization).

mikeyouse 261 days ago | |

Yeah the ‘presumption of regularity’ has long since expired for this administration. Nobody needs to pretend that the firings had anything to do with some nebulous security breach. It’s obvious they’re pretextual - the only question is why they were actually fired which the inevitable lawsuits will surely discover.

cosmicgadget 261 days ago |

That seems like a lot of heads to roll for a data breach. Certainly there aren't other factors at play.

hulitu 261 days ago | |

> That seems like a lot of heads to roll for a data breach.

This looks like a FAANG statement. A data breach shall have more effect on the management than a pat on the back.

dyauspitr 261 days ago |

Let me guess, the people fired were weren’t ardent Trump brown nosers.