Off the top of my head…
Many Tweetizens are asking my opinion regarding the: @PrimorisEra "scandal"
So fortunately I was off line for a long Easter weekend retreat in the middle of nowhere:
I have looked at the tweets and DM's I have personally exchanged w/ PE and others and wonder only from (MY uneducated outsider perspective (A.K.A. I am not an ANALYST) what if anything could have been construed as “fishing”. But then again I don’t claim to be qualified to make that decision, as I do not have all of the facts.
How I categorize tweetzens:
Levels of trust:
Lots of people follow me, I follow lots of people. Why?
• Not because I inherently trust them
• Not because of who else they follow
• This goes into the WTF file: because of what their pictures look like.
I learned from the jokes of the 80’s about the fat old 45 yr old on the end of the phone for the 1-900 phone sex lines.
o (Side Note: For those of you wondering YES: those are my actual legs. (It was the first time I ever was bold enough to get RED toe nail polish put on my toes so I mark it as a monumental bold act of bravery in a pretty little boxes world, I’m trying to write a book called Tales of the Traveling Toes)
• I follow people because it is both fascinating to watch the conversations from around the world and connect with people (real or not and engage in conversations, dialogues and learn new information to process into my grey matter)
If you do some analysis of who I engage with: It is across the board. I listen to political banter from all sides…. Sometimes I retweet someone not because I agree with him or her but to engage the opposition to engage back. The truth is always somewhere in the middle and I don’t expect to derive it from a twitter conversation. But I do learn many things about the world and what drives the rhetoric, passion etc.
I enjoy joking around with people. Life is too short not to enjoy good bantering back and forth.
I don’t watch TV so I don’t get most references to movies or TV sitcoms. So you won’t get much babbling about that from my side.
I have a passion for learning about everything, anything, people, places, things, science etc. I actively listen to all things.
I can side by side look at the US news, Al Jezzera, RTI, Breaking News, News aggregating sources from around the world and watch the spin on the truth…Who portrays what how and how the flow changes based on location, vested interest etc.
I have trusted agents (meaning people I know in person) but how do I know their 16 year old isn’t typing messages or someone hacked their account.
So I really take everything at face value and don’t base any long-term meaningful decisions on what I read, digest on twitter…. It’s freaking #140 characters….
I get some great articles to read about, cool blogs I would have never found on my own. Cool people I would have never had the opportunity to actively listen to from everywhere.
Everyone is EQUAL AND has a VOICE!!! THAT IS A BEAUTIFUL THING!!!! If you can write #140 who the hell cares if you are a shoe cobbler from the middle of Africa or an untouchable in India. We ALL have a voice!
I believe EVERYONE has something interesting and worthy to contribute to the universe. A different perspective.
Listen & stop judging and just maybe you might hear something that resonates with you…. from a sheepherder in southern Spain….
Who knows…? But just maybe…that is pure beauty!
Once again I digress (I’ve been meaning to write about this for awhile so Ill digress any way I want…. But WTF this is MY blog and I write it for me and no one else so if you don’t like it and things are misspelled don’t read it):
So PrimorisEra:
Maybe she/he is a 50yr old man? Who CARES! So what! Everything I have seen says smart conversationalist about things I am interested in, patriotism, freedom, a different perspective than is put forth from the PAO office, witty, multi lingual, fun not your usual boring MDA conversation.
Which brings forth the Security aspect of twitter
My personal risk assessment from my own experience:
o If after taking the REQUIRED INFOSEC online courses (which you must take in order to get your CAC card for a log to a GOV computer)
o You still fall for the femme fetal, Nigerian trying to get money out the country (email scandal) MLM crap and actually give someone your Identifying information: name, social security info, position of which anyone in ANY position in the military knows you don’t do even out at a BAR! I used tell people I worked at K-Mart for god sakes…. and that was when I was 18 and in a sensitive position. So I highly doubt that any career gov person would fall for that old trick.
o You must have rocks in your head. If you are in a sensitive position of National Security and gave out that information then perhaps you should re assess your choice of a career. Common sense prevails.
If someone does approach you with that kind of DM: The protocol would be to IMMEDIATELY report it to your IAM. They pick up your machine for potential spillage. End of story.
As a counter point I offer the following questions open for dialogue:
1. What level of both personal and professional responsibility do the individuals that brought forth the accusations of PrimorisEra being a “honey pot” out in public domain have to protect someone in a potentially sensitive position. If in fact PE is in that position.
2. I think the appropriate response would not be to shout to the entire Twitter Community and go viral with it…. (The same as many people re tweet stuff without fact checking) but to alert your IAM, supervisor etc and have them circle the counter espionage people and draw her into an engagement to figure out what information the “potential honey pot” was seeking (keep your enemies closer) and draw her/him/them into our own honey pot of sorts. As I will state again this is just a common sense thought off the top of my head. Maybe the actual protocol is different and I am completely unaware.
3. When I was placed in the same line as that w/ PrimorisEra: All I could do was respond with a LOL to it because I thought you can’t be serious…LOL and blew it off.
Now that said I am not a lawyer or a federal employee but:
I also propose these questions:
1. Could being called a “honey pot” information gatherer be construed as libel and damaging if it is not true? What if in fact she is who she says she is? Could her career be ruined?
2. Could the act of releasing their name into the public domain be just as damaging for our national security?
3. I believe and may be mistaken please let me know if I am: Outing (looking up someone information on the GAL/JPAS on a Government computer if in fact that is how the information was obtained by the individual/s) and releasing a gov’t employees name in a negative way and placing it into public domain could this also be construed as misuse of a gov asset.
4. I would add the following to the above statement: If it was from JPAS and this is true, how secure and closely followed are the policies of the IAM? I personally have never known any contractor to have access to JPAS. It has always needed to be a Federal Employee not contractor. GAL yes I can see that being a possibility.
I know the drama loving American Populous loves a “good scandal” for god sakes there is more US news coverage about the royal wedding currently than the atrocities that are occurring in the Middle East, Africa, and Japan etc.
We seem to have lost our sense of what is important in both reality and virtually…(side rant)
If in fact there was some form of national security breach let the people who do their jobs (that specialize in this) figure out what strategy they wish to employ to deal with the issue at hand. It is certainly not something that can be hashed out in #140.
So to close: I have no real opinion, just questions and trust that the appropriate people will deal with the issue if there is in fact any issue at all.
