calherewecome

Okay, I’ve worked on IT support for a long time. And one of things that I have learned is that the Internet is forever. That’s rule number one. There is also a corollary that states that “Stupid is forever”.

The only was to make sure that data is safe from hackers to put the server in a room, cut the cable and lock the door. And even that has risks.

So I’ve been reading about the Ashley Madison Hack. What you haven’t heard about this web site? Stop reading right now and Google “Ashley Madison Hack”. I’ve saved you the trouble, click here.

Okay everyone up to speed? Good. So here a few interesting points. Ashley Madison is site for seeking adulterous hookups. The hack contains data from some 32 million users of which 15,000 users had email addresses in the .GOV or .MIL domains. First, that means that people in our government and military are trying to carry on adulterous affairs. Second, they are too stupid to get a private account from Yahoo or Gmail. (which proves my point that “stupid is forever”.). I would bet that a lot of other users with .COM addresses were using their work accounts. STUPID, STUPID, STUPID. The idea of an affair is not to get caught. Duh.

Using your work email is just asking to caught. Storing illicit files (ie. naughty bits) on your work computer (or home computer, for that matter) is also just asking to get caught. All it takes is a trip to the IT support specialist or the help desk at Office Max or whatever. Then the fecal matter hits the air mover.

A few years ago I was asked to delouse a friends computer that had been infected by a nasty virus. The first thing I looked at after removing the virus was the browser history. To quote George Takei, “Oh my…” Needless to say, there were some unhappy folks in that household.

Even teenagers who use text messaging to exchange naughty pictures have discovered the dark side. Even the app SnapChat is not completely safe from malicious use. Maybe we need a course taught in junior high school on internet safety. Probably wouldn’t work. Some people just have to learn the hard way.

Moving on. Many politician are learning the hard way that what they said a long time ago can come back to bite them. The internet makes it easier to look up what a politician said long ago. Twitter has become both the blessing and the curse of modern politics. But what they say doesn’t go away. Ever.

This entry was posted on August 25, 2015 at 4:17 pm and is filed under Internet. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Ashley Madison, Hacks