This week saw the breakdown of Google services and the US government disclosed that Russian hackers had been spying successfully for months on Homeland Security, the Treasury and Commerce Departments. It was also said that the hackers stole and had stolen the world’s second best hacking tools from FireEye, a private company that does hacker testing for the most secure government bodies there!
This was not the first time such hacking tools have been stolen from the Banana Republic of America. It also appears that many large companies have had been hacked and trade secrets stolen. But with Trump at the helm, what else could you expect?
The fact that this has apparently been going on for months tells us that our networks are extremely insecure. It means that banks and our most private affairs like health records and passwords are all easily exposed to criminals that haunt us from Russia, North Korea, Ukraine, Belarus, China and many other countries where then rule of law is defined as “let’s steal as much as possible while we can…”
We need to think hard about the internet and our digital safety. All of this criminal activity is costing huge amounts of cash and lost time. Just think what would happen if your bank account is emptied along with a thousand of others because a hacker managed to find a way into the bank and access and empty the accounts. Will you be able to talk to somebody at the bank and get it corrected in a few minutes?
I am still waiting for Austrian Airlines to repay the cost of a ticket I purchased in February, and try to call Lufthansa, Finnair or Norwegian – I guaranty you that it will take a good 30 minutes minimum. On busy days I have waited hours…
The big companies who deal with thousands and millions of consumers just do not want to invest in sufficient resources to deal with telephone enquiries. At best you have an email address, at worst nothing more than a website where you can leave a message and pray that one day, this year our next year, you may hear from them…
This cost cutting is bad for you, but enriches the monopolistic owners way too much…
