The professionals who defined this update protocol have access to classified information I'm sure that allows them to assess risks us readers of public blog posts are not privy to! So we shouldn't judge on the morsels of public information what must have been an elaborate evaluation of best practices only accessible to the echelon of administrators in the government branch where I was doing my duty.

Seriously though, I learned a lot there. If I wanted friends to have access to such a system, this is the plausibly deniable access route I'd set up for them.