“Microbicide research is developing a new method of HIV prevention that will allow individuals to apply a gel, cream, or film prior to sexual activity.”
An earlier post highlighted the hackers pick for 2011 to date, with the Citigroup data breach taking the top spot.
I am sure the officials at Citibank would have preferred to be number one on another type of list; unfortunately, we don’t get to choose our poison or how we are going to die.
Unless, of course, you have contracted HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Well, sort of.
If you’re old enough, you may recall the worry that stalked every nook and cranny of our existence while anxiety and fear hung like smog at the thought of even sharing the same breathing space with someone we think could be a carrier.
Back then, we didn’t need confirmation that someone had the virus; a rumor was enough for us to run like hell.
Or, we would carefully and and creatively ostracized ‘those’ people.
Fast forward.
Today, we date and even marry people we know are infected.
Do you sense that the same twisted reality is seeping into our consciousness as it relates to the theft of our Personal Identifiable Information (PII)?
The unspoken acceptance that it is permissible to compromise our right to privacy and security? Those rights for which our founding fathers risked their lives?
The idea that our social security numbers, bank account access, date of birth and our legacy is up for grabs and that we should just accept it as part of our new reality?
Are we tethering on the brink of “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em?”
Or worse. Do nothing?
The measure of whether most people have accepted this new reality may not have been developed yet, but recently I interviewed an Information Security Officer, a Federal Government employee, and he quickly agreed. From his perspective, security breaches have taken on shades of severity.
Shades of severity is the unspoken acceptance of the compromise that I referred to earlier that responds only if a security breach is a matter of life and death.
Sobered by his candor, I considered the numbers:
- Symantec sees nearly 2 million threats every day
- McAfee generates 55,000 unique signatures every day, and estimates there are 2 million malicious web sites appearing every month
-
Sophos recieves 95,000 malware samples everyday, and detected 100,000 new fake antivirus products just in December alone.
In this age of terrorism, it may be that many Information Security Officers are intimidated and dwarfed by the terror cells that lurk in Cyberspace to undermine their efforts to protect the infrastructure and are sipping cups of apathy sweetened with “don’t care.”
What do you think?
Excellent post. What we must never forget, however, is that – as in the natural / physical world – the detractors are in the minority. If we are to accept Meg Whitman’s theory that people are generally good (the underpinning of ebay’s success) then we should find that there are generally more advantages in sharing than in withholding (the motivation for this comment). What needs to be racked up, as in every society, is the prevention of, detection of, and enforcement of sanctions for, crime. Those charged with these responsibilities all deserve our support and cooperation. Like the Dept of Homeland Security emphasises:”See something, say something”.
i have a hard time believing people are generally good. It seems that we have the potential to be good but we need help to be good at least or at least to sustain goodness. I often wonder how most of the world sits by and tolerate a woman being raped every 5 minutes in the Congo as an example. Unless people desire to follow God, we are not instinctively good.
I love you perspective. It is food for thought.