Makes you wonder, if these secret services can't keep their own data safe, what's gonna happen with the data they capture from us?
Why, it's funny you should ask! I just got a letter from the Office or Personnel Management about three months ago, proudly informing me that all that data is now in the hands of some foreign intelligence service.
Of course, they claimed it was the result of a "sophisticated" attack, which is government fail-speak for "We left your data on a bus, and a hobo took it".
No it isn't. The hack of OPM was very well publicized. It was a long time project of the Chinese government to break into OPM's computers. I don't believe everything I read, but in this case I know is exactly what happened.
That doesn't prove the data was well secured or that the attack was especially sophisticated, but surely China is a capable adversary.
This is just dead wrong. I think you're conflating "Government" and "Politicians". The government pays tech very well and hires intelligent people. I once did a consulting gig and went in with your exact mindset. It was the only time I've ever been fully confident that I was the dumbest person in the room.
The reason they'll always lose is the sheer quantity of attacks. Every day we have front page posts critical of the US government. That sentiment (clearly) extends far beyond the front page of hacker news. I'd wager you wouldn't have to put much effort into finding anti-governmental rhetoric in the comments section of a cooking website.
Beyond that, the weak link is rarely the technical side, e.g. Snowden. I think we all can be confident they will lose the information, but I really don't believe it's because they are technically incompetent.
No they don't. Or at least, not the parts I worked in. Maybe the really secure stuff gets paid well, but from what I've seen government jobs are one of the worst paying jobs for an IT individual.
They'll never admit it gets stolen either.