Computers and the Last Days of Disco
I've got to say, I'm pretty surprised by the reaction I've gotten for my simple assertion that flaws in computer architecture have led to innocent lives being destroyed. Everyone knows there are gaps in security. When it comes to the consequences of those gaps, though, it seems no one realizes that, in a law-abiding society, for one person to be wrongly accused of a crime is itself a crime. The police don't get extra points for convicting the innocent. If our society does not work to close all of the circumstances that lead to wrongful conviction, we cannot declare ourselves a just people.
I'll leave the topic of who is to "blame" for getting a virus on a computer aside for a moment. Let's consider other ways that one's security can be compromised.
Decades ago, a friend got her first credit card. Well, not really; at first all she got was the bill for her first card. The card itself never arrived. Did she have to pay the over (IIRC) US$850? Not at all. She was able to prove that she never got the card. Visa had to eat that one.
Credit cards are not the only problem. Long-time readers will remember that years ago someone tried to inflate the amount on one of my checks.
"That'll be a hundred extra bucks, please!"
Did I have to pay? No again. A quick-witted bank teller caught the suspicious check, asked the forger for all the ID she could before she ran away, and notified me. The cops now have an arrest warrant out, and for all I know may have served it years ago.
A similar thing happened to The Wife, though the jerks got away with it. She mailed her US$8 gas bill through a US Postal Service sidewalk collection box. A month later, the bill comes with a past due amount. Less than three hours after she dropped the check in the mail -- in a box located outside the USPS main Seattle headquarters -- the box was robbed, her "tamperproof" check was "washed" of all her ink, new ink was added and the modified check -- complete with a signature that didn't resemble hers at all -- and was cashed 4 miles away. She didn't pay that one only because she was able to show the signature wasn't even close.
My point here is that every time a financial transaction takes place, we -- and I mean all of us, each time -- place ourselves at risk of fraud, of some intermediary or participant intervening in the normal course of events and trying to skew the process in their favor. Yes, you may never use your credit or debit card to make online purchases; but that doesn't stop the cashier at the bookstore or the restaurant from simply copying your card number and making later purchases, or just selling the number on the internets to those that specialize in such fraud. We are all at risk, every time.
I think back to the '70s, to the more sexually exploratory adults that surrounded me, of the exploits they regarded as common and were told I would have to look forward to. I didn't. That heated rutting and frolic faded just about the time I and my body grew ready. Why? It started with herpes, Time Magazine's "Scarlet H." Unlike most of the VD of the time, this was a virus that couldn't be wiped out with a simple shot or series of antibiotics. Close on herpes' heels came AIDS, raising the stakes for physical contact through the frickin' roof. It went from game on to game over almost overnight. I came of age during the rise of the Moral Majority, not the Summer of Love. (And yes, I am still pissed.)
I'm also not one to defend the Draconian pornography laws this country has chosen to enact. We have more child-targeted sex crime in the US of A than Holland, a country with very lax porno standards and porn freely available in Amsterdam. Possession of child pornography does not lead to child abuse. That has never been demonstrated scientifically; in fact, the opposite is likely true.
I, however, do not live in Holland.
So let's look at those examples I gave. When I get a new card, I must activate it with personal information. This is necessary simply because of the millions probably lost from stolen or otherwise intercepted and abused cards, like my friend's from decades ago. When my altered check was seen, the tale of altered checks like The Wife's gas bill -- and the money the bank had to lose -- taught tellers a lesson to be more vigilant. Likewise, now, when you pay for dinner, note that only the last four digits of your card are visible on the receipt. This prevents dumpster divers from scoring on discarded bills.
It won't, though, prevent cashiers from actually copying the info. That's still a problem.
Likewise, try as they may, software makers have yet to make a bullet-proof operating system, one immune to the kind of fraud that I outlined in the kiddie porn post. As it has been mentioned, it seems, I am alone in sympathizing with those whose lives are ruined. Most every reply seemed to suggest that the Fiora's should still be rotting in prison for opening themselves to abuse from a hacker. That surprised me.
This is a problem that won't go away. Consider also that the hackers that compromised that state-owned laptop sitting on the Fiora's table are doing what I hear time and time again should happen: They were turning computing into a "cloud" application. Why store information on a single hard drive when distributing it on many will keep it safer . . . especially when the digital info can translate into hard time in the penitentiary?
However, note that the examples I've just given of situations one hardly ever sees -- credit card activation, extra check cashing scrutiny -- were forced on institutions by the monetary losses fraud exacted. When they're not likely to pay, companies will likely not pay attention.
And now that fraud has escalated from a dose of the clap to a social death sentence, isn't it time all computer makers started to pay . . . attention?
No matter how old their products?
I'll leave the topic of who is to "blame" for getting a virus on a computer aside for a moment. Let's consider other ways that one's security can be compromised.
Decades ago, a friend got her first credit card. Well, not really; at first all she got was the bill for her first card. The card itself never arrived. Did she have to pay the over (IIRC) US$850? Not at all. She was able to prove that she never got the card. Visa had to eat that one.
Credit cards are not the only problem. Long-time readers will remember that years ago someone tried to inflate the amount on one of my checks.
"That'll be a hundred extra bucks, please!"
Did I have to pay? No again. A quick-witted bank teller caught the suspicious check, asked the forger for all the ID she could before she ran away, and notified me. The cops now have an arrest warrant out, and for all I know may have served it years ago.
A similar thing happened to The Wife, though the jerks got away with it. She mailed her US$8 gas bill through a US Postal Service sidewalk collection box. A month later, the bill comes with a past due amount. Less than three hours after she dropped the check in the mail -- in a box located outside the USPS main Seattle headquarters -- the box was robbed, her "tamperproof" check was "washed" of all her ink, new ink was added and the modified check -- complete with a signature that didn't resemble hers at all -- and was cashed 4 miles away. She didn't pay that one only because she was able to show the signature wasn't even close.
My point here is that every time a financial transaction takes place, we -- and I mean all of us, each time -- place ourselves at risk of fraud, of some intermediary or participant intervening in the normal course of events and trying to skew the process in their favor. Yes, you may never use your credit or debit card to make online purchases; but that doesn't stop the cashier at the bookstore or the restaurant from simply copying your card number and making later purchases, or just selling the number on the internets to those that specialize in such fraud. We are all at risk, every time.
I think back to the '70s, to the more sexually exploratory adults that surrounded me, of the exploits they regarded as common and were told I would have to look forward to. I didn't. That heated rutting and frolic faded just about the time I and my body grew ready. Why? It started with herpes, Time Magazine's "Scarlet H." Unlike most of the VD of the time, this was a virus that couldn't be wiped out with a simple shot or series of antibiotics. Close on herpes' heels came AIDS, raising the stakes for physical contact through the frickin' roof. It went from game on to game over almost overnight. I came of age during the rise of the Moral Majority, not the Summer of Love. (And yes, I am still pissed.)
I'm also not one to defend the Draconian pornography laws this country has chosen to enact. We have more child-targeted sex crime in the US of A than Holland, a country with very lax porno standards and porn freely available in Amsterdam. Possession of child pornography does not lead to child abuse. That has never been demonstrated scientifically; in fact, the opposite is likely true.
I, however, do not live in Holland.
So let's look at those examples I gave. When I get a new card, I must activate it with personal information. This is necessary simply because of the millions probably lost from stolen or otherwise intercepted and abused cards, like my friend's from decades ago. When my altered check was seen, the tale of altered checks like The Wife's gas bill -- and the money the bank had to lose -- taught tellers a lesson to be more vigilant. Likewise, now, when you pay for dinner, note that only the last four digits of your card are visible on the receipt. This prevents dumpster divers from scoring on discarded bills.
It won't, though, prevent cashiers from actually copying the info. That's still a problem.
Likewise, try as they may, software makers have yet to make a bullet-proof operating system, one immune to the kind of fraud that I outlined in the kiddie porn post. As it has been mentioned, it seems, I am alone in sympathizing with those whose lives are ruined. Most every reply seemed to suggest that the Fiora's should still be rotting in prison for opening themselves to abuse from a hacker. That surprised me.
This is a problem that won't go away. Consider also that the hackers that compromised that state-owned laptop sitting on the Fiora's table are doing what I hear time and time again should happen: They were turning computing into a "cloud" application. Why store information on a single hard drive when distributing it on many will keep it safer . . . especially when the digital info can translate into hard time in the penitentiary?
However, note that the examples I've just given of situations one hardly ever sees -- credit card activation, extra check cashing scrutiny -- were forced on institutions by the monetary losses fraud exacted. When they're not likely to pay, companies will likely not pay attention.
And now that fraud has escalated from a dose of the clap to a social death sentence, isn't it time all computer makers started to pay . . . attention?
No matter how old their products?