Yeah, it's Friday.
P.S.: I have been reminded that much of the West is presently on fire, too.
The further and continuing adventures of the girl who sat in the back of your homeroom, reading and daydreaming.
Friday, September 08, 2017
Okay, Let's See...
There's a massive hurricane barreling towards Florida, as people in Texas continue to recover from their own hurricane; hackers grabbed the personal data of over 700 140 million people from Equifax, one of the three companies that keeps track of our credit ratings; North Korea is making saber-rattling noises about whacking North America with a thermonuclear-airburst EMP that would wipe out most computers (including, one supposes, the compromised computers at Equifax), and we just had the biggest solar flare since 2006 and the geomagnetic storm it will trigger is going to hit some time today--
Yeah, it's Friday.
P.S.: I have been reminded that much of the West is presently on fire, too.
Yeah, it's Friday.
P.S.: I have been reminded that much of the West is presently on fire, too.
You forgot the massive fires out west:) Unfortunately the last two weeks have been 14 Mondays in a row for a lot of people.
ReplyDeleteHow about the 8.1 magnitude earthquake just off Chiapas . . .
ReplyDeleteNever mind that; did you see those shoes Melania was wearing??
ReplyDeleteOther than that, Ms. X, how was the play?
ReplyDeleteAnd in the human/fiscal realm, perhaps half the adults in America may have had their personal credit information exposed in a breach because Equifax got sloppy.
ReplyDeletebut yeah, this is fine. I'm okay with the events that are unfolding currently
Ah, just another day at the office. Note to self, buy more ammo.
ReplyDeleteSo, two thoughts on the Equifax mess.
ReplyDelete1) I wonder at what point the fedgov is going to start insisting (once again) that the SSN is not a universal identification number and should not be used as such? You know -- like used to be the case before 1972, when cards still read "For Social Security Purposes - Not For Identification." (I'm old enough that my SS card says that.)
2) At the very least, Equifax ought to have to pay for LifeLock for every single one of those compromised accounts :)
General observation: There's way too much out there on the public internet that has no business being there, except that it's become the "thing" to have all that out in the cloud at your fingertips. I'm waiting for someone to hack into some "secure" system and shut down the power grid, personally. Or the natural gas pipelines in the middle of some cold winter night. Infrastructure systems shouldn't just be behind firewalls, they should be physically disconnected from the public internet. If that means some poor schmoe has to sit up on the swing shift manning a control center instead of monitoring things from the comfort of his own home, tough.
Every one of your points makes eminent sense, so naturally they will be resisted with every asset and bit of attention, milliwatt of brainpower (particularly so with the government) and ounce of strength.
Delete"At the very least, Equifax ought to have to pay for LifeLock for every single one of those compromised accounts :)"
ReplyDeleteIt seems in this case that it would be more cost-effective for Equifax to buy Lifelock outright and operate it as a subsidiary.
"It seems in this case that it would be more cost-effective for Equifax to buy Lifelock outright and operate it as a subsidiary."
ReplyDelete"Well, Mr. Fox, all the paperwork seems to be in order, do you want the keys to the henhouse security system now, or later?"
And Jerry Pournelle passed away.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Monty. :( Sad news.
ReplyDelete@Monty
ReplyDeleteThanks, all I heard about was some country singer.
Of course, I'm sitting in a Baptist conference center in Alabama waiting for the Powers That Be to decide that its safe to go start cleaning up after Irma, so I guess that's to be expected.
Still. :-( indeed.