Ransomware attack reveals breakdown in US intelligence protocols, expert says

Ah, it's Whack-A-Mole time again! The War on Terror is like a game of Whack-A-Mole, isn't it? Well, so is computer security. Every time we fix one leak, we spring another. And this discussion is also like the game. I should have kept a copy of my response so I can simply paste it every time it pops up. Yes, we are one of the most advanced countries in the world. Our children were mastering computer skills, many even writing complex gaming programs when communist block nations were keeping copy machines under lock and key. Sure, they're now playing with computers too, but we still have a great lead over them. No, technology isn't our weakness, it's "Users". They're lazy. Security takes a little extra effort and they're not willing to take it. Oh the examples I could cite. Innumerable ones from several decades during which I rose from building and selling individual workstations to programming to architecting networks and applications for international corporations. Let me give you just one to illustrate the point... A couple decades ago, a device was marketed that allowed users to create their own wifi signal so they could move about with their laptops and remain connected to their company network. We warned users not to purchase and use this device inasmuch as it had no provision for security. Anyone could tap into the corporate network using their signal. (You can guess the rest, can't you?) Of course. We could drive around the corporate campus picking up countless unauthorized, unsecured wifi's. Talk about Whack-A-Mole. Every time we shut one down, another popped up...

That wikileaks connection is probably intentional, and would not have even come up except the hacker made it a point to garner more attention to it. The whole thing could conceivably be for no other purpose that to bring focus to the whole wikileaks thing.