This is bad.

(The Register) The enterprise software giant – which services businesses, the American military, and various US government agencies – said it was told by the FBI on Wednesday that miscreants had accessed Citrix’s IT systems and exfiltrated files.

One of the Minnesota companies using Citrix is a former employer of mine. It is a mental health provider. And it is quite large. Nystrom & Associates. Now, I am hoping that this statement from Citrix is true:

At this point, Citrix reckons the intrusion was limited to its corporate network, and thus believes customer records and data were not stolen nor touched.

My problem is that “reckons” is a mighty ambiguous word instilling little – if any – hope in me they have any knowledge as to the extent of this hack. But that appears to be an inference by the Register and not an actual quote by Citrix. However:

Resecurity also said it warned Citrix on December 28 that the software giant had been turned over by the hacker crew during the Christmas period. Citrix, meanwhile, said it took action – launching an internal probe and securing its networks – after hearing from the FBI earlier this week.

Waiting until they were told by the FBI on Wednesday despite a warning as far back as December 28 makes me wonder if they have any clue. For the sake of any prominent political and government workers in Minnesota I hope Citrix is right. However, I am not holding my breath while they investigate the width, breathe, and depth of this breach.

This story, by-the-way, is an example of the new warfare. It will not be just on real battlefields but on internet battlefields. The hacking of the 2016 election was an example of internet warfare. And as in real warfare there is always collateral damage. Welcome to the 21st Century.

But no one listened.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Along with many others, I am going to quickly comment on the invasion of Iraq. Actually, it is just a copy and past of a comment I left at Bark Bark Woof Woof:

I was a fool and naive back then. I could not contemplate that a President of the United States would actually lie our nation into attacking another country. I figured that was the purview of tyrants and dictators, not duly elected leaders. I have since learned my lesson. Indeed, the talk of Iran smells similar to the lead up in 2003. I will not be so quick to put faith in our industrial/military complex again.

I am not so willing to buy the reports coming out of the neoconservative quarters. They colluded with President Bush in lying our way to invading Iraq, with talk that we would have to also go into Iran. And they have never stopped. Not again.