[today’s run: 3.4 miles]
I had a nice run this evening.
The big news on the internet is about the hacking of a “dating” site for married people called Ashley something. I’m not sure how their “service” worked, but I am sure that putting your name, address and credit card information in such a system almost has to end badly. If you get what they are selling, that will be bad. If you don’t get what they are selling, that will be bad. And the actual outcome was probably the worst: some hackers broke in and grabbed their customer database and posted it on the internet.
If you’re not clear on this just let me be the first to tell you: the information you type into a website you are entrusting to someone else. Even if those people attempt to be trustworthy it still may get away from them. Just ask Target or the IRS.
I haven’t looked at the list of people in the stolen data. I really don’t want to know. Most of my life I’ve been that way: I’d rather not know the details of other’s failings just like I’d rather they not know mine. Looking back, sometimes that has been a mistake, maybe, but generally it has worked out OK.
The other thought I had about this: I think I’ve been very fortunate to not know how to get myself into trouble. At certain junctions in life I might have been inclined to drift from the straight and narrow (hah!), but I really never have had much opportunity. If you wake up some day and really want to go score some crack cocaine (just an example), it’s probably good that you don’t have the faintest idea where to start. Oh well. Eat another cookie. You’ll get fat but you’ll probably be able to keep your job. Some sins are just easier to deal with in the consequences department.
A certain amount of ignorance is a blessing.
So it’s my thinking that it’s best not to know who was “selling” on the Ashley website. Maybe I could stoke up my pride by bringing others down. But, no. I’ve already got an overabundance of pride anyway thank-you-very-much.
And if you’re on the Ashley site, well I’m rather a glutton and lazy to boot. I’m headed for my circle of hell like everyone else. So we could toast each other with a fiery drink from a dipper of self righteousness (we’ve got barrels of the stuff)… or look to Jesus. He offered “living water” and that sounds pretty good.
3 replies on “No thanks”
I worry that the IRS, always under financed for the role it is asked to perform, doesn’t have adequate data security. Just a matter of time before that data is mined by some persons or foreign state.
People are idiots, some using work e-mail for such foolishness (from what I read).
I don’t have an understanding of what in the IRS system would be dangerous on the loose. But yes, I think it could be cracked if wanted badly enough. Already there have been cases of insiders trading that info.
I do know that 30% of the political leadership is working hard to defend the former Sec of State using an offsite email system for government business. That’s just insane.
Where I work we get phishing e-mails all the time. This is a ploy that our company uses to nab the naive folk who will click anything. If someone got my info they would have access to addresses, income, etc., of 270,000 employees so I can see the reasoning. Our CEO sits on the Target BOD and they learned a hard lesson.
I haven’t been following the state department server stuff. Wait until the investigation is over. I do recall that Sarah Palin used yahoo for government business before she quit her governorship in Alaska. Only because it was hacked. I don’t know where you get the 30% figure but it’s as good as any. (I wonder why the other 70% is sitting on their hands?). After the wiki leaks debacle, government servers didn’t seem so wonderful to me.