In this online era most peoples fortune and wellbeing hangs by a thread of copper or gold, micron scale wires that connect everything from the networks we use the devices we store our data on. Our familiarity forms over confidence, we are just so use to the gadgets working time after time after time.
But if that tiny little metallic thread was the only thing preserving your physical life would you trust it like a harness or a safety line?
Yet you do daily, perhaps the vehicle you travel in steers, brakes or accelerates by wire. There is the cloud storage that keeps your precious family photos safely archived, and your financial data secure, all run by a tiny thread like wire of gold or copper.
Don't trust it, for the very same reason those of us dealing with IT regularly tell you to backup, backup, backup, never put all your eggs in one basket, that basket may be hanging by a thread!
When I was working for / with a major local R&D Institute, they got hacked by China. They eventually found the cause, a tiny tiny little electronic device, smaller than the full stop at the end of this sentence. Inserted in a serial communications wire and set to rebroadcast data to the it's masters. This little silicon chip turned up everywhere, in phones, routers, APs, you name it, if it had a chance of transmitting or receiving it was probably there. Not all data, that would be too obtrusive, just some important stuff like the odd password or username. In the end I think the saga got a China based telecoms company banned.
But if that tiny little metallic thread was the only thing preserving your physical life would you trust it like a harness or a safety line?
Yet you do daily, perhaps the vehicle you travel in steers, brakes or accelerates by wire. There is the cloud storage that keeps your precious family photos safely archived, and your financial data secure, all run by a tiny thread like wire of gold or copper.
Don't trust it, for the very same reason those of us dealing with IT regularly tell you to backup, backup, backup, never put all your eggs in one basket, that basket may be hanging by a thread!
When I was working for / with a major local R&D Institute, they got hacked by China. They eventually found the cause, a tiny tiny little electronic device, smaller than the full stop at the end of this sentence. Inserted in a serial communications wire and set to rebroadcast data to the it's masters. This little silicon chip turned up everywhere, in phones, routers, APs, you name it, if it had a chance of transmitting or receiving it was probably there. Not all data, that would be too obtrusive, just some important stuff like the odd password or username. In the end I think the saga got a China based telecoms company banned.
"Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck ....... Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck"