We should see red after cyber red flags
Suffolk County Information Technology Commissioner Scott Mastellon at a news conference in June 2020 in Hauppauge. Credit: Newsday/John Paraskevas
We should see red after cyber red flags
People should be fired for the way this was handled [“Red flags raised before Suffolk cyberattack,” News, Nov. 14].
Scott Mastellon, Suffolk County’s information technology commissioner, is atop this list.
County Clerk Judy Pascale made several urgent requests for additional security. She wasn’t just crying wolf.
The role of Brian Bartholomew, the information technology security coordinator at the time, shows how inept and dysfunctional this political process had been in the county. He retires, is hired again to do the same job as a consultant, then moves to Florida. On top of that, Bartholomew refers all questions about the attack to his lawyer. Amazing.
And let’s not forget that all this happened under the watch of County Executive Steve Bellone.
So many red flags were reported from so many credible people, and they were ignored. It’s another reason why many people have no faith in elected officials.
— Douglas Scheim, Commack
This situation shows why many don’t trust government — because the people in it show that they are inept.
Despite sufficient warning about a “real threat,” the bureaucrats responsible for protecting the network and the politicians we elect to oversee them couldn’t do the right thing.
Now the finger-pointing starts instead of “pink slips” being issued.
— Ed Patterson, Holbrook
Stop and frisk? No, but do register guns
Remember the definition of insanity? Stop and frisk didn’t work the first time [“Stop and frisk can cut number of guns,” Letters, Nov. 10].
During Michael Bloomberg’s 12 years as New York City mayor, about 5 million people, mostly Black and Latino men, were stopped, and half were frisked. Most had done nothing wrong.
Some 86% of guns were smuggled in from states with lax gun control: Florida, Georgia, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. We need to register the nearly 400 million firearms in circulation in the United States. Texas has hardly any gun control, and shootouts and deaths of innocent bystanders result.
— Arnold Wishnia, Setauket
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