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August 28, 2017

Hacking For Government Transparency

Filed under: Cybersecurity,Government,Journalism,News,Reporting,Security — Patrick Durusau @ 3:37 pm

The 2017 U.S. State and Federal Government Cybersecurity Report by SecurityScorecard lacks details of specific vulnerabilities for identified government units, but paints an encouraging picture for hackers seeking government transparency.

Coverage of the report:


In August 2017, SecurityScorecard leveraged its proprietary platform to analyze and grade the current security postures of 552 local, state, and federal government organizations, each with more than 100 public-facing IP addresses, to determine the strongest and weakest security standards based on security hygiene and security reaction time compared to their peers.

Security Rankings by Industry

Out of eighteen (18) ranked industries, best to worst security, government comes in at a tempting number sixteen (16):

Financial services, with the fifth (5th) best security, is routinely breached, making it curious the government (#16) has any secrets at all.

Why Any Government Has Secrets

Possible reasons any government has secrets:

  • 1. Lack of interest?
  • 2. Lack of effort by the news media?
  • 3. Habituation to press conferences?
  • 4. Habituation to “leaks?”
  • N. Cybersecurity?

You can wait for governments to embarrass themselves (FOIA and its equivalents), wait for leakers to take a risk for your benefit, or, you could take the initiative in obtaining government secrets.

The SecurityScorecard report makes it clear the odds are in your favor. Your call.

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