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ICE Awards $25M Iris-Scanning Contract to Bi2 Technologies

https://www.projectsaltbox.com/p/ice-awards-25-million-iris-scanning
164cdrnsf | | 50 | HN
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afavour | parent | next
I’ll save you a click: yes, of course it was a no bid contract. And:

> The procurement did not require the system to clear FedRAMP, the government’s security review for cloud systems handling sensitive data, before deployment. It described no independent audit, congressional notification or outside review of how the system would be used.

I don’t know how the US charts a path back from all this. There are going to be so many breaches to fix.

Revanche1367 | parent | next
There is no path back. Even if the next administration overturns ICE and its activities and dissolves all contracts related to them, there is no reason to think the US govt will not keep using any and all technologies or services obtained in the name of security, regardless of party, even if they have to do so with deep secrecy.
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mikeyouse | parent | next
Torn between anger at all the incompetent chucklefucks getting rich off taxpayer money and gratitude at them bestowing these contracts on useless sycophants instead of competent organizations..
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GolfPopper | parent | next
>I don’t know how the US charts a path back from all this.

There isn't one. And the sooner we all come to terms with that, the better off we and posterity will be. The constitutional government of the United States failed long before January 20th, 2025. Chasing sunk costs on this scale as futile, even if the alternatives are terrifying.

In my opinion, the best, just, course forward is a Constitutional Convention that dissolves the United States Government and replaces it with nothing. Let the states and territories govern themselves as they choose, and work out needed compacts and agreements going forward.

jadbox | root | parent | next
Boggles my mind you'd even imagine a positive scenario here. Let the states choose? This is not only how we kept slavery going by letting states drive, but it also caused a civic war when we had no federal coordination.

Nay, we must reform and reclaim a just federal government. Letting states drive themselves will turn the country into extreme violence.

esseph | root | parent | next
> Letting states drive themselves will turn the country into extreme violence.

Who days that doesn't happen now? Seems like wishful thinking.

esseph | root | parent
The states should be free to choose their own course.

Citizens should be allowed to move freely between them.

May the best governance win.

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smallmancontrov | root | parent | next
You are wildly underestimating the difficulty of building anew. Fortunately, you are also overestimating the impossibility of coming back from organizational trauma.
esseph | root | parent
You may be underestimating the historical significance of the moment a critical percentage of a population loses faith in its institutions.
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{"deleted":true,"id":48256477,"parent":48254905,"time":1779622992,"type":"comment"}
myko | root | parent
He should've been locked up on January 7th. That was the death knell.
era-epoch | parent | next
The current US administration is already on the multiple-decades level of cleanup, and looking at the political group nominally tasked with doing said cleanup, the more likely answer would seem to be "never".
0xbadcafebee | parent | next
Technically you could already win contracts without all those things, there are like a thousand loopholes. FedRAMP in particular only really covers cloud hosting, there are other DoD standards you have to follow for more specific systems. And if the agency isn't DoD, I don't think they apply anyway.

If we had a software building code that applied to digital infrastructure in general, the way building codes apply to buildings in general, and electrical codes apply to electrical installation in general, this wouldn't be an issue, because you'd need your shit together to make any software product. But nobody seems to mind companies making shit products and leaking all our data.

jmcgough | parent | next
How do we know there's any plan to accomplish this, and that this isn't just funneling $25M to a family member?
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0xbadcafebee | parent | next
So the police state has upgraded from papers to eyeballs
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bix6 | parent | next
Ryan Ballard strikes again.
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