There’s much news about cyberspace of course, all the time, isn’t there?
And the major part of the news is always concerned with CD piracy – people stealing pop songs.
And the desperate unremitting efforts of the media organisations to put a stop to this awful piracy which jeopardizes their ‘earnings’, they say. And I put ‘earnings’ in quotes advisedly, I think you’ll understand.
But listen, sick joke though that might be there’s one that’s even sicker: What is the Government doing to protect YOUR computer?
The answer is: nothing.
But YOUR computer is prey to every internet hacker/attacker/terrorist/bandit that might exist.
In fact it would be a PRIME TARGET.
Because probably the easiest way to attack government and business computer systems is via our home computers.
When I was a student of computers we learned that the way to hack into a mainframe or a network, the easiest way, was to get access to an existing account.
In fact it is virtually the only way. It is not the only way – we all know access is gained via communication protocols such as ftp, http and so on… but I’d say that still the number one, mainstream, ‘front door’ approach to hacking into a system is to find an existing account.
And once in we find that accounts are constrained. They are limited in what they can do. They are not ‘administrator’ accounts as they are known in the Windows world, or ‘superuser’ accounts as they are known in the Unix world.
They are limited, constrained, carefully controlled standard user accounts.
BUT: many system operators, many network supervisors, many managers, just don’t know enough about their own networks, systems, computers, operating systems, to prevent the knowledgeable breaking out of those constraints, once they are in the system….
So: get in through a normal front door and then go wild…
That’s the way it goes.
And – where are all the easiest accounts to get into?
On OUR computers. On the home computers.
The home computer thing represents a massive, a gaping gulf of a hole in the nation’s cyber security.
There’s radio networks in many homes to satisfy the need for computers for the kids… but those networks also network dad’s computer and he’s a branch manager of the bank, a big wheel in a corporation, a security man, a politician, a manager……. anything.
Get the idea?
And the software for hacking into computers is getting better and better and better…..
Don’t think it is getting worse, that they are being beaten by our modern counter-virus tools that get touted so widely on the web, don’t think they are relaxing their efforts because you haven’t read in the papers about NASA being hacked recently or somesuch…
No. They are not relaxing and they are not being beaten.
They are getting so cunning you wouldn’t believe.
They manufacture anti-virus software – and even charge you for it sometimes – which IS A VIRUS!!
They make virus’s that take special tools to root out, that often, often are NEVER rooted out and live in your computer unknown to you for years.
Doing what? Could be anything, could be nothing. Could be just waiting to be called into action. Could be just spreading itself around. Could be networking computers together ready for some event such as a massive attack.
So – can you see it? Our computer’s security is a national problem!
It is not right that you and you and you…. that all of us individually have to fight our own battles to keep our computers free of virus’s of unwanted software, of attacks….
Because, en masse, we can’t, there are too many incapables amongst us and why not? Computers are there to be used by anyone.. they are not there to be only used by computer aficionados with all kinds of esoteric in depth knowledge of computing and computers…
No, they are there for your granny to view knitting patterns and recipes and skype her grandkids if she wishes….
And how easy would she be to attack?
And if she does her banking online? And Medicare? And perhaps her husband has an old account with where he used to work…?
And so on.
There’s not a million computers there’s only one. We are all joined courtesy of the net. There’s only one computer now. The weakness of my computer, the hole in my computer’s security compromises your security and together we compromise the nation’s security.
Simple as that.