Next big attack will be cyber attack...

[Guest hitoallusa]

Some Americans are asleep while Chinese, Russians and foreign and domestic criminals are out there to find a hole in the system... It worries me a lot. Let's be imaginative and do something about it before it comes.

[Guest EXPAT]

Everybody should switch to Apple computers.

[OneFinger]

Everybody should switch to Apple computers.

WHY!?!??

If everyone switched to Apple, then the hackers would focus on Apple and turn their attention there. Apple is NOT the perfect product. It's just harder to attack. Why attack the hard product when Microsoft makes it so easy??

IMHO, the Apple product is much safer as long as Microsoft is widely used. If Apple was the only game in town, thre would still be problems. Hacker's aren't going to roll over and die if Apple rules the world. They'll just change their focus.

[AdamSmith]

Forget consumer computing. The big holes are in the commercial systems, many quite antiquated, that run such things as chunks of the power grid, telecom networks, etc.

RA1, could the air traffic control system be hacked so as to inject havoc?

We at least have proven with the Stuxnet worm that we can (with the aid of such as Siemens!) master the technology for purposes of attack. But, as with atomic weapons before, will devising defenses elude us?

[Guest hitoallusa]

Well you run a company... Give us some innovative solution.. Make our hero Adam Smith proud!

Forget consumer computing. The big holes are in the commercial systems, many quite antiquated, that run such things as chunks of the power grid, telecom networks, etc.

RA1, could the air traffic control system be hacked so as to inject havoc?

We at least have proven with the Stuxnet worm that we can (with the aid of such as Siemens!) master the technology for purposes of attack. But, as with atomic weapons before, will devising defenses elude us?

[AdamSmith]

Well you run a company... Give us some innovative solution.. Make our hero Adam Smith proud!

Well, OK. But, as the Mighty Favog used to say, it'll cost ya!

[JKane]

Everybody should switch to Apple computers.

Because then there's nothing the foreign hackers could do to make them *worse* for accomplishing anything productive with?

If everyone switched to Apple, then the hackers would focus on Apple and turn their attention there. Apple is NOT the perfect product. It's just harder to attack. Why attack the hard product when Microsoft makes it so easy??

Actually, OneFinger, MS products consistently come out ahead of Apple products in security bake offs.

So you're right, the only benefit they have is obscurity but given how much that has shrunk combined with a higher average net worth of owners, that's likely to change soon. In fact an exploit just recently made the news. And the fact they've done little to prepare for this shift will certainly give it a bigger impact as it does expand.

But the real inherent flaw is the general ways Apple products pat you on the head and say "it's OK, you don't need to worry about that... look! shiny!"

[Guest EXPAT]

The only security issue with Apple products is the fact that you can password protect their version of Word or spreadsheet documents. But outside of that they are equivalent or better than Microsoft products in security. I've been using Apple for 4 years now and haven't had one issue ever and I constantly had issues with Microsoft and windows based computers.

[JKane]

Again, because nobody's targeting you it may feel secure, but it doesn't make it the case...

Thing is, I haven't had real problems on PCs in several years either. Once MS released a pretty good security product free that covered most things, the last couple bouts of malware I had to deal with weren't too bad and that was over a year ago (on computers I support, never a problem on mine).

Windows was also first to offer things like hard drive encryption and biometrics through stuff like TPM which inherently makes them clearly superior as business laptops. I think Android phones can also have their data encrypted.

[Guest EXPAT]

AS they say, necessity breeds invention. . .

[MsGuy]

Jesus God, now they are selling 'zero day' hacks to whoever can come up with the cash (well, anybody who can dream up a 'legitimate end use' lol)! And it's legal (except in Germany). And cheap really; what's $50 K for a zero day hack?

Does this remind anyone else of those cyberpunk dystopias?

http://www.washingto...41_story_2.html

[AdamSmith]

Was to be expected, now that you point it out. Black markets for weapons of whatever type have most always proved lucrative to capable purveyors, be they individuals (or rings thereof) or governments of whatever stripe. (That great crack from just after the start of our entertainments in Iraq: "Of course the U.S. knew Saddam had WMDs -- we had the receipts!") No reason malware, as it matures as an industry, should be any different.

The Germany twist in this story is just too darkly hilarious a riff on one angle off onto which the Teutonic collective mind can veer, when it loses sight.

...Thinnin' on that, imagine life for the rest of us should it ever occur to Israel and Switzerland to coordinate their complementary strengths to fix the global nuttiness once and for all to their joint security liking. These tools -- referencing of course Israel's (and Siemens'!) role in the Stuxnet business -- could conceivably confer Neuromancer-like powers to go fairly far in that direction.

[lookin]

Doomsday hell

And global fights

Can now be done

With bits and bytes

[AdamSmith]

Doomsday hell

And global fights

Can now be done

With bits and bytes

Bravo!

...a better version of that clip from The Raven:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Woopc6cV5Lo&feature=player_embedded