this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2025
236 points (98.0% liked)

Technology

73758 readers
3932 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
technopagan@lemmy.world
L4s@lemmy.world
L3s@hackingne.ws
L4s@hackingne.ws
236
St. Paul, MN, was hacked so badly that the National Guard has been deployed (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 week ago by return2ozma@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
71 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

you don’t class Utah as a big state, in terms of the tech sector?

In terms of military, we have:

  • one major Air Force base (Hill)
  • some storage and testing facilities
  • refueling facility for the Army

That's it. We have ~3.5M people (~1/100 of US population), and only ~3 metros that matter (SLC, Utah County, St. George). Minnesota has ~5.7M people, so it's almost twice as big, and the Twin Cities cities area (includes St. Paul) is bigger than the entire population of Utah.

So while Utah punches above its weight in tech, St. Paul area absolutely dwarfs it in population. Surely they have a robust cybersecurity industry there...

The National Guard just seems like a desperate move. When they're deployed, they take orders from the the federal military, and at peace, monitoring foreign threats seems like a federal thing. You call in the National Guard to put down a riot or something where you just need bodies, not for anything niche. The only way that makes sense is if they think there will be an invasion (angsty/Canadians?) and they need boots on the ground for physical protection. Otherwise, just call a local cybersecurity firm to trace the attack and assess damage.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

So while Utah punches above its weight in tech, St. Paul area absolutely dwarfs it in population. Surely they have a robust cybersecurity industry there...

https://lecbyo.files.cmp.optimizely.com/download/fa9be256b74111efa0ca8e42e80f1a8f?sfvrsn=a8aa5246_2

Utah, #1 projected tech sector growth in the next decade, of all 50 states.

Utah, #8 for tech sector % of entire state economy, of all 50 states.

Minnesota?

Doesn't crack top 10 for any metrics.

Utah may not be the biggest or techiest state, but it is way more so than Minnesota.

The National Guard just seems like a desperate move.

Again, this is my argument, but you are only seeing desperation as due to incompetence, not due to... actual severity.

When they're deployed, they take orders from the the federal military,

Not actually true unless the Nat Guard has been given a direct command by the Pentagon.

and at peace, monitoring foreign threats seems like a federal thing.

... which is why the FBI were called in, in addition to the Nat Guard being able to report up the military CoC.

You call in the National Guard to put down a riot or something where you just need bodies, not for anything niche.

I mean, you yourself have explained that the Nat Guard does have a CyberSec ability, and I've explained they also have the ability to potentially summon even greater CyberSec ability.

I guess you would be surprised how involved the military is / can be in defending against national security threatening, critical infrastructure comprimising kinds of domestic threats.

Remember Stuxnet?

Yeah other people can do that to us now, we kinda uncorked the genie bottle on that one.

Otherwise, just call a local cybersecurity firm to trace the attack and assess damage.

It is not everyone's instinct or best practice to immediately hire a contracted firm to do things that government agencies can, and have a responsibility to do.

If this was like, Amazon being comprimised, yeah I can see that being a more likely avenue, though if it was serious, they'd probably call in some or multiple forms of 'the Feds' as well.

But this was a breach/compromise of a municipal network... thats a government thing. Not a private sector thing.

EDIT:

Also, you are acting like either you are unaware of the following, or ... don't think its real?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Data_Center

Kind of a really big deal in terms of Utah and the tech sector and the Federal government and... things that were totally illegal before the PATRIOT Act.

Exabytes of storage.

Exabytes.

Utah literally is where the NSA is doing their damndest to make a hardcopy of literally all internet traffic and content.

Given how classified this facility is, I wouldn't be surprised if their employees don't exactly show up in standard Utah employment figures.