Infestations

BH has an email account which she does not use very often. But useful to have.

Last year it got infested with what appeared to be Italian & Instagram flavoured emails. I probably looked at one or two of them, but there was nothing of interest to this non-Italian speaking, a non-Instagram user, so they just got archived or deleted unseen. They seem to have come to an end.

But this year it is infested with what appear to be emails from Biglots of reference 1, seemingly some kind of warehouse operation selling household and garden goods. I learn from reference 2 that it is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Is it a coincidence that the Mettler Toledo advertisements that have started arriving in my email account come from the same town? See reference 3.

Which brings me on to today's depressions. Brought on by reading the article at reference 4 brought on by the book at reference 5. First depression is the huge number of clever & educated people working at hacking into computers all over the world. Computers which might be controlling the Sizewell B power station or the petrol pump at Kiln Lane up the road. And no honour among thieves as they are well up for hacking each other. Second depression is the huge black market in what are called exploits, that is to say exploitable weaknesses in the computer networks of important organisations or in widely used system software. A huge market in which governments all over the world, including the UK and US, are active: it's not just the bad people and long hairs who are doing it. Third depression is the ease of entry into the business. It might help, but you don't need the backing of a state: a bunch of people in some connected shed in Bulgaria would do. Or the Isle of Wight for that matter, although my experience of the connections there is that they are not very good.

I would say in defence of the clever & educated people who invented the Internet, all the malign uses to which it could be put were not so clear at the time. Nor was it clear how difficult it would be to build & deploy defences.

And I suppose it is a start that our fat leader has sprayed the cyber word all over the recently published security review at reference 6. Even if the archaic language in which the title is couched looks a bit silly in this day and age.

Reference 1: https://www.biglots.com/.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Lots.

Reference 3: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/03/a-miscellany-for-friday.html.

Reference 4: Weaponizing the Web: Nicole Perlroth’s investigation into the shadowy world of cyberweaponry predicts an unsettling future for global - Sue Halpern/NYRB - 2021. 8th April.

Reference 5: This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race - Nicole Perlroth - 2020. Bloomsbury.

Reference 6: Global Britain in a competitive age: The Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy - Presented to Parliament by the Prime Minister by Command of Her Majesty - 2021.