Just when we were all planning to celebrate the holidays by going to see The Interview those humorless North Koreans have spoiled our Christmas and/or Hanukkah. Talk about Grinchiness, they take the cake. There are several sides to the ridiculousness before we get to the serious issue.
First, what marketing genius at Sony thought up the idea of starting World War III by making a fool of Kim Jong-Un? He doesn’t need any help with that; he supplies enough for Stephen Colbert to hit the ground running when he takes over for David Letterman. Second, why would millions waste a perfectly good holiday and eat popcorn in a multiplex rather than deal with the children’s toys, all marked “Some Assembly Required” and “Batteries Not Included?” And third, will Sony recoup the five-hundred million dollars this is estimated to have cost them? We need not lose any sleep over that.
The serious problem is the hacking of the data and if it were only Sony, it wouldn’t be all that troublesome. The real lesson is that the next war will be fought in cyber land and not with bullets but with the rearranging of the data world as we know it.
Imagine just these simple things: Automobiles that won’t run, water that doesn’t come out the tap, heat that never appears, lights that never turn on, grocery shelves that are totally empty, no hospitals, no air travel, no schools, no banking, money, or credit cards, and . . . worst of all . . . no shopping centers and no multiplex movies. That’s just the tip of the iceberg when hackers get hold of major computer networks, not to mine the data, but to shut them down.
Here’s a little end-of-the-year exercise if you need convincing. Keep a list of the emails you receive this week from banks where you have never had an account, a credit card that you have never owned, an automobile that needs a warranty extension, an insurance policy that requests personal data, and best of all, the multimillions of dollars an Ivory Coast bank is holding for you since you are the only survivor of an uncle who was tragically stomped to death by an elephant. Then add to that how many phone calls you get that are robotic and double that number if you have a cell phone in addition to a land line. It’s this latter invasion of privacy that is particularly irksome and dangerous to the unwary.
Some of the emails look authentic and threaten closing your account if you don’t immediately respond. All it takes is a simple click and the hackers know they have a live one on the line. To avoid this road to disaster here are a few rules: NEVER respond in any way or soon you may be looking at an empty bank account. NEVER give out any user name or password to anyone who requests it. NEVER be threatened into responding in any fashion. NEVER open an attachment to an email from an unfamiliar source.
Here is a scam that has recently surfaced. An official sounding robot gives the following message. “I have been authorized to serve a subpoena in an important legal matter matching your social security number. Please press 1 to allow me to resolve this issue for you.” Of course, if you do, you will be asked to supply critical information about your banking “in order to stop the legal proceedings.”
In the case of less ominous calls, if you press 1 and start to complain, you are instantly disconnected. If they give you the option to not be called in the future by pressing 2, the robot tells you that is not a valid entry.
Everyone has these horror stories but here is the object lesson: This is a threat with which we will have to live as individuals, as businesses, and as a nation for the foreseeable future. Talk about unintended consequences! No one ever anticipated such but if you had planned to see The Interview, then you realize this is not a laughing matter.
This may be preaching to the choir but the scam industry is clever, smart, and more dedicated than anyone would have thought, so these words to the wise are needed. It’s only going to get worse.
Happy holidays . . . and I’m not asking for your user name and passwords.
– Hayden Hollingsworth
