Feel Safe?

This is a very unpleasant bit of news. The Federal Aviation Administration has had its computer systems hacked – repeatedly – as it has switched over to “commercial” software.

Hackers broke into US air traffic control computers on several occasions over the past few years and increased reliance on Web applications and commercial software has made networks more vulnerable, according to a government audit.

Among the breaches was an attack on a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) computer in February 2009 in which hackers gained access to personal information on 48,000 current and former FAA employees, the report said.

In 2006, it said, a viral attack on the Internet spread and forced the FAA to shut down some of its air traffic control (ATC) systems in Alaska.

The current administration is apparently taking a cruise up denial, which is not a river in Egypt:

“We are working on developing security architecture for that whole system,” said FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown. “We have identified it as an issue we need to focus some attention on, and we’re doing that.”

Security tests identified 763 “high risk” vulnerabilities that could allow hackers access to administrative systems, which could then provide a path to more-sensitive operational systems, the report said.

Ms. Brown rejected the report’s conclusions that hackers could get into critical air-traffic operational systems through administrative systems.

“It’s not possible to use the administrative and mission support network to access the air-traffic control network,” she said. “We have specific orders that prohibit them from being directly connected.”

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that an Air Force air-traffic control system had been compromised, alarming intelligence officials who feared that such an attack could be used to interfere with air-traffic systems.

Most of the known penetrations of FAA systems involved administrative networks that manage air-traffic flow and electric power, as well as email systems and internal and external Web sites, the report said.

The nature of one 2006 attack is a matter of dispute between the inspector general and the FAA. The report says the attack spread from administration networks to air-traffic control systems, forcing the FAA to shut down a portion of its traffic control systems in Alaska. Ms. Brown said it affected only the local administrative system that provides flight and weather data to pilots, primarily of small aircraft.

Wow. I feel confidence just bubbling up, don’t you?

If the commercial software is this easily hacked – and if the FAA spokesman is this clueless to the threat – we all have a real problem.

Lights Begin To Come On

Some of Barack Obama’s biggest – and most generous - backers have now begun the painful process of realizing just what hope and change they paid and voted for – and are beginning to hope they can avert that change before it is too late.

Wealthy Wall Street financiers and other business figures provided crucial support for Mr Obama during the election, backing him over the Republican candidate John McCain as the right leader to rescue the collapsing US economy.

But it is now dawning on many among them that Mr Obama was serious about his campaign trail promises to bring root and branch reform to corporate America – and that they were more than just election rhetoric.

A top Obama fundraiser and hedge fund manager said: “I’m appalled at the anti-Wall Street rhetoric. It was OK on the campaign but now it’s the real world. I’m surprised that Obama is turning out to be so left-wing. He’s a real class warrior.”

Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute, a free enterprise think tank, said Democrats in Congress were unnerved by the president’s latest plan to raise $210 billion over 10 years from multinational corporations.

The money is needed to pay for a national debt that will double over the next five years; and triple over the next 10 years to $17.3 trillion. But the crackdown already faces fierce Democratic resistance.

Personally, I’m not all that impressed with their reasoning skills if they couldn’t figure this out until they saw the mob with pitchforks at the gates. But then, Moe Lane councils staying away from “I told you so’s”.  Which seems a reasonable position to take.

One could, of course, point out the Democrats took control of both houses of Congress following the 2006 elections. A year later, the US economy entered a recession. Two years later the economy hit the wall. A few months after that, Barack Obama unleashed the mother of all spending sprees with no way to pay for the insane spending.

Let’s see if there is any ability of former or soon-to-be former Obama-backers to reason through that chain of events to the logical conclusion.

 Saying that Washington is spending like a drunken sailor is an insult to drunken sailors. They stop spending when they run out of money. Obama and the Democrats do not.

But the bills will still come due, the piper must be paid for all that fun dancing at the gala Obama spendaholic ball.

When the “free” health care and the Carbon Crap and Tax – oh, excuse me, Cap and Trade – begin to bite at the economy, that is when real damage will begin to accrue to the system. That is when the average people will begin to be crushed under the increasing costs of everything. Literally everything.

So, welcome then to reality – not the echo-chamber reality where hope and change is enough. The reality where someone has to pay for all of this. And it will be you, your children and your grandchildren.

It Begins

The Obama administration sneaks out a major admission: They can’t actually do math.

The Obama administration will propose $60 billion in new tax increases over 10 years on wealthy estates, businesses and others to make up for shortfalls in its fund to pay for an expensive overhaul of the health-care system.

The measures go beyond plans the White House has announced in the past few weeks. Officials said that upon further analysis they realized that they had overestimated savings and tax increases proposed in February to help pay the bill. (Emphasis added)

These are only the tip of the tax iceberg many of us have seen coming all along, while the SS Obama slammed the throttles to the stops and put on full speed ahead.  

All of this insane spending - every, single dime of it – will have to be paid for. That will require taxes and it will impact – negatively – the starry-eyed supporters of the double-speak king they helped elect. It won’t just be “them” who are paying for all the gladhanding.

Obama already raised taxes – regressively – on smokers, the bulk of whom earn lower incomes. That was only the first campaign promise he is going to be breaking. All those “free” things he promises are going to cost. A lot. This is the first public admission that there will be major tax increases coming, across the board.

And that the “Best and Brightest” can’t add simple figures.