7 months ago I saw the world differently.
When it came to technology, I was worried about all the wrong things. For example, is my phone listening to me? Yes. Absolutely it is. But in so many more ways other than just listening to your voice. To appropriately quote the Police, it measures “every step you take and every move you make.” Listening isn’t the issue.
Whether or not my phone is listening to me isn’t even on my top 10 list of sci-fi-future fucked-up shit I worry about now. We live in a world with an electric heartbeat. Digital pulses and near-psychic interfaces link us instantly to each other. We are caught as much in the technological net as a fly is trapped by a web. But we are also as much on the web like the spider as caught like the fly. Complete and full immersion. Hunter and hunted. Most of us think the internet is an amusement park when it’s actually a hunting ground. IoT (Internet of Things) isn’t a luxury, it’s a hunter’s blind. And is it me or does anybody have a problem with the use of the word “Things”? “Things” sounds like the sequel to John Carpenters alien horror film (probably my favorite horror movie, ever).
Technology has made each of us more powerful and more vulnerable simultaneously. Any one of us with just a little training could create chaos with a few clicks of the keyboard. For instance, I spent last weekend on the Department of Homeland Security’s website taking classes on Infrastructure Control Systems and cyber security. ICS monitor and control systems that often require real-time info and are extremely sensitive to delay, systems in which shutdowns can be catastrophic. Think dams. Think power plants. Think runaway trains. Think nuclear centrifuges. Big stuff that needs to work really well or all the lights go off, shit explodes, glows and fragile ecosystems are destroyed.
After 6-hrs of videos and tests about the Vulnerabilities, the Risks, the Threats, the Methodologies, IT Mapping, and the Consequences of cyber security issues with ICS, I was not optimistic. Nope, I was more like, “Sweet Mother of Burning Circuits, we are in trouble!” Don’t trust my hyperbole, check out the links below.
Water Plant Hack in Florida-Oh, Florida...
Hackers in Electric Grid-Yep, this is no joke.
Easy Access Tools-It’s way too easy for the bad guys.
Or go read Sandworm.
But don’t worry, I got a plan to save the world.
Next up: Cyber-Sorcerer-Ninja-Detective