CBO confirms hack, says it has implemented new security measures

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: Recently, a new couple with no children moved onto our cul de sac, and everybody is taking notice! This attractive pair with no kids both drive amazing cars, work from home and leave their garage doors up a lot. Everybody on the street walks by to sneak a peek into the big garage at just about any time of day.

Lately, the man’s been out on his front lawn in a muscle shirt in the late afternoon, planting shrubs and putting up stylish fall-themed ornaments. At night they often leave the living-room curtains open. That makes for convenient viewing for curious neighbours like us!

A few days ago, my wife invited the new couple over for a barbecue and swim in our pool. They are really nice people, but mentioned that other people nearby have been pretty stand-offish. They wonder why. Should I tell them it’s probably just jealousy over their beautiful vehicles and enviable lifestyle, or should I just shut up?

—Wanting to Help, Sage Creek

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Congressional Budget Office on Thursday confirmed it had been hacked, potentially disclosing important government data to malicious actors.

The small government office, with some 275 employees, provides objective, impartial analysis to support lawmakers during the budget process. It is required to produce a cost estimate for nearly every bill approved by a House or Senate committee and will weigh in earlier when asked to do so by lawmakers.

Caitlin Emma, a spokeswoman for the CBO said in a written statement that the agency “has identified the security incident, has taken immediate action to contain it, and has implemented additional monitoring and new security controls to further protect the agency’s systems going forward.”

The Washington Post first wrote the story on the CBO hack, stating that the intrusion was done by a suspected foreign actor, citing four anonymous people familiar with the situation.

There’s an object lesson playing out to the south of us, and not exactly the one you may be thinking about.

It’s not the obvious one of “don’t elect a federal leader who has a clear history of caring about his own grievances before he thinks about the needs of his citizens,” or more simply, “don’t elect someone who is less an agent of change than he is an agent of chaos.”

No, the lesson playing out to the south of us — one likely to have an impact on U.S. midterm elections later this fall as well as the last U.S. presidential election — is that there is a clear danger in allowing dark money to fuel political campaigns.

There are estimates that political action campaigns — or PACs — will once again dump billions of U.S. dollars into the mix, funding advertising campaigns and other political campaign efforts, and steamrolling less-funded efforts.