Totally agree regarding hooking systems up to the internet. Command and control systems should be air/vacume(?) gapped from networked systems. The only thing that should be able to exit out is telemetry and that should be a one way transmission to another hardwired subsystem. Normal comms can be managed with good security discipline, including contingencies to wipe and reload general use computers, which of course would have zero command and control connections. International space treaties need to be updated, to include cyber security, rules of engagement and well understood consequences, e.g. "getting their asses beat" for committing an act of war. Cyber warfare in space, during what is supposed to be peacetime, should carry the same weight as popping off a nuke.

From the OP: "Whom Americans vote for is private." - Largely NOT true AND IT SHOULD BE. "But other information in their state voter files is public information; depending on the state, it can include details like their name, address, phone number and party affiliation and when they voted." - None of this information should be public knowledge. And it is actually much worse. In my state in the US for example, the following information is publicly available, just by entering a first and last name into the State voter search page: Your Address, County, Registration Status, Voter Reg Num, Party, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Registration Date, NCDMV Customer (Do you have a driver's licence?). They also helpfully provide your Voting History, to include: Elections you voted in, Voting Method, Voted County, Voted Party (which appears to be gathered from the ballot type you chose to vote on, depending on the type of election). So basically, everyone on the planet can know, who you are politically and who you voted for (at least party-wise). In today's political climate, is it really appropriate that this type of info is made public?

100 years from now spaceflight my become commonplace but it still won't be routine. The fact that a safety system that was largely based off of a US design, has been used to safely recover astronauts from a doomed ship, two or more times, in differing scenarios, is statistically awesome. In my opinion... I figure, anytime that you get people back alive, after kicking them into space (or almost) on top of glorified pyrotechnics, should go into the "win" column. As far as capsule verses shuttle is concerned, while I do feel that it's a step backward, maybe we did push the envelope a bit with the Shuttle. It was a heck of an achievement though for mid 1970's tech. With the advances in reusable, fly-back boosters, reliable (statistically) engines, safety systems and flight controls, maybe we'll be able to get more done in space with less grief. More commonplace.

Really tired of the Cloud Computing\Outsourcing is Cheaper chant. Politically, it's great to be able to claim that you're "going" to save money but those projected savings always seem to be eaten up by increased fees and service add-ons. Cloud computing isn't about saving money (although it's always marketed that way), at least for Federal and state governments. It's just an easy way of divesting yourself of the responsibilities of managing an IT infrastructure. Additionally, you get to shift costs from capital to operational, which just looks better on the books. In the end, you're still going to pay more though. As far as security is concerned, what could possibly go wrong with giving stewardship of our country's most sensitive data over to some non-auditable (IT wise), public, global entity?

Let's face it, security through obscurity is cheaper. Also, there's virtually no real, permanent or painful consequences for a large corporation that doesn't secure their customers data. More than likely, they're the only provider of a service that you need or the other guys do the same thing anyway. Perhaps you'll get a public mea culpa , a "we're sorry" add campaign in public media and one years worth of BS identity protection services. The truth is, they just don't care about your data, except for the money they can make off of it or the problems their lack of due diligence will cause you. BTW the Federal and State agencies are just as bad. In their case though it's largely because they don't have the money to fix the problems or they just don't want to spend it. In reality, it's buyer beware. Know who and what data you're giving away.

As far as locking is concerned, if you've paid outright for a device, it's yours and shouldn't be locked. If you have a subsidized or financed phone, I'd concede to (though I still don't like it) locking only for the period of time that it takes the carrier to recoup its value or the phone is paid off. As for ESIMS, I don't know much about them to speak to that issue, only that portability is a good thing and if that helps with that I'm good. My biggest beef with the wireless carriers here in the US is that for the large part, they don't support a lot of cool, new tech type devices. It's really frustrating to see that a lot of the dual screen, tri-screen and other unique or stainless steel encased chunks of techie awesomeness, that work just fine overseas, are not supported on most of the big US carrier's networks. I'm 55. I've waited a long time since the original Trek for my techie toys, um tools and I'd appreciate it if they would work here in the US.

"A plurality of the average American voter have demonstrated their inability to detect fact from fiction, or even know how easily they are getting played by well funded enemy states that are plotting our demise." I don't think it's as much this as it has gotten near impossible to fact check anything that you read or hear or see on/in media today. Most if not all media sources are heavily, politically stilted in viewpoint and more yet, just regurgitate outright lies and nonsense. Right or left, it plagues all houses. It takes a lot of time and digging in order to ferret out the granules of truth. Time and effort that most people either don't have or don't wish to expend. The old adage, "Believe nothing you hear, half of what you read, and some of what you see", should probably be changed to, "Believe nothing you hear, vette all that you read, and be suspicious of everything that you see on video (unless you personally know who took it).

Does anyone really think that this ends with just Equifax? The other credit agencies have more than likely been breached at some point too. I would not bet against the probability that every US citizen has likely had some or all of their identity and financial information leaked, hacked, stolen or sold to other parties. We may all end up adding a credit watching/protection "service" to the list of our many, monthly paycheck leeches. First World Problems I guess...

If Earth humans had the kind've technologies required to travel to another star system, I would hope that we would,ve also started to use those technologies to clean up and repair damage done to our existing planet. Also, we can barely put people into orbit. Going to Mars is viewed as a tremendous technological challenge, one not likely to be conquered, possibly, before we're a third into this century. I think we're more likely to go extinct due to causes of our own making, way before we make it to another star system and muck up other planets. So, no worries then!

I believe that to induce ultrasound that damages hearing, you would need a frequency generator and pretty powerful transducer or amplified speaker that could reproduce that ultrasound frequency at those damaging levels. I'm pretty sure that a misaligned fly-back transformer for example, can't do that.

In my opinion: Almost all internet connected H/W, OS and applications have as-of-yet undiscovered vulnerabilities, even when supposedly patched. At least one major intelligence agency of a "some" State government, has been actively exploiting the above vulnerabilities for at least a decade and has developed a lovely little toolbox of goodies that has for reasons that allude me, been leaked to the hacking, et all., community at large. All entities that collect the most private of data from us have been or will be hacked eventually. Many of those hacked entities will never come clean about it unless publicly burned by someone. There will be little or no recourse or punishment for these entities, even in cases of extreme negligence. Unless maybe a bunch of folks die... With the amount of data that we are required to, encouraged to or coerced into providing various government, financial, medical and retail entities, it's only a matter of time as to when your most sensitive info becomes publicly available. If one is to accept that having your data exposed will be the norm, how do you operate on a day to day basis in that environment? It's not like we can all go off-grid or roll back to paper. Not that that would help anyway...

Am I the only one that was reminded of the satellite crashing into the mother ship at the beginning of Independence Day?

Enshrined in a museum, yes. Operational for official use, no.

Lack of parts, lack of security updates and patches. Inherently less secure and a big fat hacking target. Lack of capacity to keep up with modern demand, etc. All tech has an end of life. It may still function perfectly fine for what it was originally intended but that's like expecting today's cellular networks to still support a 1980s bag phone. Eventually the tech just can't get out of its own way and becomes a huge money suck.

A few thoughts on this: 1. Supporting out-dated hardware, software and infrastructure, gets progressively more expensive as time goes on. If you space a tear out and replace project over say five years as an operating cost instead of an all up front capital cost, it should be doable and save some money in the long run. 2. The more out-dated hardware, software and infrastructure are past end-of-life, the less secure those networks and systems are. Can we stop with the ridiculous federal data breaches everyone?! My security clearance info is out there in the wind so I kind of take that a little personally. 3. Updating infrastructure doesn't have to result in lay-offs or outsourcing (a Yuuuge security risk IMHO). Enough with the FUD. 4. All Federal infrastructure upgrade projects don't have to become total fiasco's, "IF" they have the proper leadership, oversight, scope and funding. You can't tell me that there aren't enough experienced companies, with good success records that could take on this kind of project. 5. Put off infrastructure projects long enough, for whatever reason and eventually, really bad shit happens. Anyway, that's my $2 worth as an IT person.