Cyber Security

My hunches were validated today when meeting with the City of San Diego's CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) in regards to cyber security and lack thereof.  Most hacks and such are due to lack of practicing computer hygene and common sense.  The public wants to blame some nafarious government agency for snooping, but mostly it's people voluntarily posting personal information on socia media sites and then they wonder why they are victims of identity theft.

Yawn.  I've blogged about that before.

What really intrigued me today was how vulnerable our public emergency response system is and how somebody with evil intent can jam it and take it down.  Now THAT causes me concern.

The other thing of concern is how huge corporations handling sensitive personal information are NOT following their own cyber security policies and how systems are breached.  The Hackers Convention in Clark County Nevada actually has a game where they get on the telephone and call someplace like Bank of America or the like and see how long it takes to obtain enough informatioin to steal somebody's identity.  It's shocking how much employees of these places will voluntarily divulge to complete strangers.  The hackers go just far enough not to break the law.  It's a game to show how employees are not thinking before disclosing.  A company can have the best cyber security policy in place, but if you have a dipshit employee it's useless....and it only takes one.

What is publically shown on 'main stream' search engines is only about 10% of the internet's capability.  I think the public is mostly unaware of this and I hope people figure it out.  There is this HUGE underbelly dark net that operates in the shadows.  Some of them are up to no good.

In the meantime be VERY selective about what you post about yourself online.  The first place hackers go and identity thieves go?   Facebook.