Nothing, really. Same ol’ shyt. Just more of it, seeping into every nook and cranny of our daily lives. I was in on the ground floor as an IT pro when it really took off in the mid 90’s, so my perspective could be considered somewhat credible. The question to me now is: are we going in the right direction? With Net Neutrality rules following other recent right-wing political initiatives, One has to wonder…
Assuming some current Cyber issues all really boil down to politics, (the answer to my question posited here) let’s take for example, the Russian election meddling issue. Or Russian election “hacking” as has been erroneously characterized in the fake news and even from podiums in our most hallowed high government chambers: WTF? Who is naive enough to believe the Russians don’t have aspects of their own national security at stake in our election outcomes? And just how short-sighted do you have to be not to expect them to do anything they can to apply influence towards those outcomes with one of the few means they have available? You can be absolutely sure the CIA is monitoring Russian political activities looking for anything they can exploit to OUR advantage – and actively doing so at every opportunity.
What is the big difference between a Russian social media/fake news campaign, and the conventional campaigns waged here at home by the candidates themselves? Technically nothing, except who is doing it. And that you cannot control. But it sure does seem to make great fodder for politicians always ready to seize upon anything they can twist to their own ends. Maybe they are just afraid of the unknown, because let’s face it, the level of technical understanding on the topic of “hacking” is pretty darn low for probably 99.999% of the population, politicians included. So goes the Russian hacking nonsense: A huge issue garnering intense focus from idiots in Washington D.C. who actually know little or nothing about the topic, generally speaking.
Follow the money. Then consider all the other Internet-borne security threats we face today: Spam, Phishing, Identity Theft, Credit Card Fraud, etc. It’s all about easy money. And what’s the “easiest” money in the world? Why taxes, of course! And there we are full circle back to politics. So conservatives favor giving the Telecoms more leeway in how the Internet is managed, giving more control and thus greater market advantage to the C-levels in the business. AT&T and their ilk just love it when the government allows them to stack the deck in their favor. More profit buys more lobbying. Round-and-round we go…
Fuck security – there’s money to be made!!