Terrific Tuesday: Fires of all kinds
Fiery sunrise in Godwin Cemetery March 30
Hey it’s Terrific Tuesday again. How’s everything in your neck of the woods? Hopefully, not on fire. A fire burns on in Arcadia, but the big ones are west of here. I hear a fire might be puffing near Kroger. Blasted low humidity and wind!
Here is a firestorm of a different type. I feel compelled as a member of the media to deliver news of cyberwars. Today I had spam in my mail, spam on the comment pages and phishing on Facebook. I believe it can happen…Last week I made you laugh, today I want you to think.
Thus I thought to the deeper matters of which I am reading so much about as of late. Things that we all need to know but aren’t often told, or worse we don’t listen.
They call it Cyber Wars. According to Richard Clarke who served three presidents and has a book out called “Cyber War,” it is the most dangerous game for all of us in the world today. He said there is no defense against the cyber attacks that are targeting us now and in the future.
Before you pull the plug on the computer, think of the many, many things that are computerized. Clarke who now runs a company called Good Harbor in NOVA said it is only a matter of time.
Sigh—there goes the bank account, the power grid, the TeeVee, phones, traffic lights and so on. Back to 1810. He blames part of it on the Chinese who sell us software and technology parts that are full of portals to be hacked. We have built some cyber offense like he believes the cyberworm, Stuxnet which took the Iranian nuclear power plant down by asking four simple questions. Clarke seems to think we did it. Some think it was Israel. Stuxnet in Hebrew spells “Esther” the Biblical Jewish girl who charmed a Persian king.
No more nights on YouTube, looking for movie times on the cell phone or texting? Goodness what in this world would be coming? 1980? Can we go back to the old world?
Here are few links so you can decide for yourself. By the way Clarke was the guy who warned the Bush Administration in early Sept 2001 that Al Qaeda was planning a big attack. In the 9/11 Commission report, he was the one who famously stated to America, “Your government failed you.”
Make an emergency stock of canned food, water and hide a little cash. If you are a good ol’ boy or gal shells for the hunting rifle, flashlight batteries and matches and a first aid kit. You never know. It won’t hurt to be prepared and you can use it during storm season, hurricanes, etc.
See ya next week.
April 10, 2012 - 4:11 PM
Good points. What is equally, if not more concerning, is the amount of personally identifying information that people post on the internet. Facebook is a goldmine for identity thieves / regular thieves. People post TOO much information – like when they are going to be away for vacation, or that they just bought a new big screen tv. And I imagine that most facebook users are not aware that any website that they visit that includes a facebook “like” option on it is associated with their facebook id if they haven’t explicitly logged out of facebook the last time they used it – the miracle/curse of tracking cookies. So yes, facebook has a record of every site that you have visited (that has a facebook “like” button — like this one for example) if you haven’t chosen “logout” from FB before closing the FB page.
Cyberwar is a real problem — but so is the fact that we are now all living in a surveillance state of our own making because we make every detail of our lives available online. And all of that “private” account info that is stored on these many sites — doesn’t even require a court order to be obtained — just a properly worded request from a government agency.