Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Bear in mind we’re at an odd time politically where the GOP controls the White House, the House and the Senate.

There is a very small window to essentially pass legislation unchecked and that hasn’t been easy with a 52-48 (with a tie breaker) majority in the Senate. We saw several failed attempts at repealing Obamacare.

What’s more that majority is about to shrink to 51-49.

My point here is the GOP currently has no time for anything bipartisan. That doesn’t mean they’ll address this of course. But it’s just not as important as the donor class agenda is right now.

Once Doug Jones is seated and we start to approach the midterms expect to see more unifying issues instead of, say, hugely unpopular tax bills for billionaires.




IMHO this issue is already dead and buried on capitol hill. The window to act has already passed. There's no hope of seeing action on this until another 300M Americans have had their data stolen.


I would see it differently: The current logic and trajectory of McConnell's several Congresses as a leader would suggest the exact opposite. That if he believes his time as leader is short that he will push through more nominations and other policies as he can under reconciliation in service of his donor class and long standing political beliefs, it doesn't help him to give the other party any policy wins. Bipartisan achievements are likely to come only as conditions for Democratic votes necessary to maintain operation of government funding.


Also, eventually, a data breach that inconveniences or outrages a bunch of millionaires will happen.


What would that breach look like? I'm asking sincerely, because I can't fathom what kind of data breach that would be that wouldn't be able to be "smoothed" in a mater of days.

- Black card number stolen? Card frozen.

- FDIC insured account attempted to be flushed. Banks flag and or fraud protected.


Because it won't pop up right away. It will show up when that line of credit taken out in your name goes into collections 90 days from opening.

You should read up on the havoc that is caused with stolen identity. I'm not talking stolen credit cards, more like unknown judgements taken out against you and wage (in extreme cases, wage garnishments).


FDIC has a per-person insurance liability limit of $250,000 per bank. It's possible you could find an idiot with more than that in a single bank, presumably in CDs, with no other insurance coverage on it. You need some sort of strange reverse Nigerian Prince scheme to cash that out without a paper trail ("I'm executing his will and he explicitly stated to hand out all of his assets, damn the losses, as $20 bills and fresh turkeys to orphans and other passersby on Christmas Day." Maybe call it a "Christmas Carol scheme"?). It's unlikely to be worth the time investment in terms of being a useful bank robbery, but it certainly would send a weird message to someone.


No rich person is keeping money unprotected like that. Most banks offer FDIC maximization solutions.


Hence the emphasis on "possible". But yes, an exceedingly unlikely confederation of dunces.


NSA tap leak exposing phone recordings of all members of congress for the last couple of years.


Something that leaks Trump's tax returns?


It's worth pointing out, the reason why data breach notification laws exist is because one time the relative of a California state congressman had their identity stolen because of a data breach.


> the reason why data breach notification laws exist is because one time the relative of a California state congressman had their identity stolen because of a data breach

Source?


http://www.zdnet.com/article/perfect-storm-for-new-privacy-l...

Search for section heading "California as precedent?"

My memory was imperfect, the real story is even more direct: The data breach was the Stephen Teal Data Center, which houses payroll for state employees, including legislators and staff.


> The data breach was the Stephen Teal Data Center, which houses payroll for state employees, including legislators and staff

Sounds comparable to the June 2015 OPM breach [1], which leaked 4 million federal background check records. The root of the problem is in something other than connecting the powerful to the problem. (The Equifax breach almost certainly inconvenienced powerful people at least as much as most average Joes.)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Personnel_Management...


If the Equifax breach didn't do it, I shudder to think what will.


The Alteryx leak[0,1] also didn't cause action to be taken. GAAP rules ought to be modified to treat data like a raw material - like a pile of stainless steel or lumber - which must be guarded and maintained, lest the asset depreciate into a liability.

[0]https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2017/12/19/120m-...

[1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15965060


The Panama/Paradise papers, maybe? Not that legislation to penalize the exposure of tax shelters is likely to happen, but that seems like the relevant type of breach.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: