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i don't think existential means what he thinks it means.
Cyber attacks threaten the "very existence" of the US, according to a top FBI official charged with worrying about such things. "The cyber threat can be an existential threat - meaning it can challenge our country's very existence, or significantly alter our nation's potential," Steven Chabinsky was quoted by Computerworld as …
Are not the words the "very existence" of something abit contradictory things taken into concideration?
I am sure we all graps the word "existance", simply (just simply) understood as someting known as an object or idea of sorts, and the word "very" as something encompassing, large and such.
Now, how can the "very existance" of something something be interesting? As far as I can tell, it would make sense that this would be about something small or fragile. That would pretty leave out USA. Unless the notion of USA is really small or basicly nonexistant, like only existing in an eventual actuality.
So, I would say, that talking about the "very existence" of USA does not make sense. How fragile is "it"? Removing the two party system? A change of flag? Health care for everyone? No guns allowed? A small, medium, or large threat? Or a theoretical theat? Or an imaginary threat?
Oh so that is what it is all about then. The freedom to do *everything*, without being liable to consequences good or bad. Or, about demanding a right to be hysterical or omnipotent, for dictating their world and the world around them.
It dawned on my the other day, that what the people/organizations/states with power probably wants, is really *predictability*. So predictability can be had by using power or probably just by striving for power.
Well gee I could have told anyone that!
First place to look for this is in the Bible and not in a religious way but as a historical matter.
The Bible warns us of the comming evil NEW WORLD ORDER. This also means that
the Bible is against this new world order.
Now with the above known now go look at any current active religiouspolitical figure
and they are the main builders of this NWO but yet they say they do this as proof of faith or "faith in action". One of the biggest who are full of this FULL OF FAIL building the NEW WORLD ORDER is the christian side of A.I.P.A.C. As they want to fullfill gods words even though we know not the hour that the messiah returns they hasten the return by fullfilling the events of the bible as an act of faith.
So these proxy agents of Satan(the christian aipac members) are going against the warning of this comming NWO and they claim they are doing for the love of Jesus Christ.
Now talk about how gullible and blind they truly are! They see not what they are building.
They shall burn in hell for renegging on the warning in the Bible for sure.
You know... obscenely large meals, stupid big cars, idolatrous reverence for symbols of the state or religion - T-shirt of Jesus wearing "THE Flag"... actually, Googling {"jesus flag t shirt"} only gets me references to "The Daily Show" episode where Jon Stewart commented on that.
Cyber-attack maybe doesn't directly threaten that, but I guess somebody could hack an oil refinery and halt gasoline production, leading to what survivors would call "The Great Desolation".
Actually, God hates flags.
I wouldn't expect this guy to say otherwise any more than I would ever expect to hear an anti-virus company say that viruses are no longer any threat. My 85 year old mother would be more credible on the subject than someone who's job is dependent on the "existence" of the US being under threat...
Just to add the point that at some point you *will* have to dump IE6 as even MS desperately want rid of that bastard browser.
Just make sure the next contractors employed to implement anything are forced to do all acceptance testing on two *different* OS and browser combinations (e.g. win7 + IE8 and LINUX+ Firefox). That way you won't be soooo deep in the sh*i next time...
Best solution - fix/replace them.
Practical solution - run a VM for XP/IE6 and have them set up so they are fire-walled from the outside world, and have USB ports & autorun disabled on all drive types.
Host system could be anything really, LINUX probably best choice, and it is used for email/web/etc if possible. Getting away from horrible version-sensitive spreadsheets and so one would also be a good idea, as then you have greater portability of office software.
My comment was actually typed with my tongue firmly in my cheek.
Seriously I don't actually know how many US Govt Apps are coded to *need* IE6 but my *suspicion* (given the sort of bad procurement and implementation habits large organizations can acquire) is
a) More than 1
b) At least 1 deals (directly or indirectly) with large sums of cash, or something which can be turned into cash (OTOMH a pharmacy warehouse management app processing government funded prescriptions) giving The Bad Guys a *lot* of motivation to find a way in.
c) it supports enough users that re-coding it (and testing the system afterward) will *not* be cheap, to the point that TPTB will conclude "We have no *evidence* anyone *has* tampered with the system, it works OK, and besides who even *knows it runs on IE6? We'll leave it to the next FY/Change of administration to re-consider"
Maybe nothing does happen. I''m reminded of the Anthrax murders a few years ago. Essentially just to revive interest in the killers anthrax vaccine mfg company. He seemed to consider a few bodies the price of increasing the greater good (of his net worth).