Safe cracking in the 21st century

When Simenon was writing in say the 1940's and 1950's, safe cracking was almost a respectable profession. A highly skilled trade which kept its distance from crude thuggery on the the streets outside. A trade which might attract severe penalty, but which might also attract the admiration of policemen and safe builders. Mutual admiration of competitors in a reasonably sporting activity.

Perhaps that sort of crime has given way to hacking computers, another highly skilled trade, but one with the potential to do a great deal more damage than is likely to be caused by a safe being hacked open, even a big safe at a big bank.

I read today at reference 1 of sophisticated hacks said to be the work of a group called Hafnium, on which the FT say 'Microsoft has attributed the campaign to a group of Chinese state-sponsored hackers called Hafnium', although reference 1 is coy on that point. I also learn of a new bit of cybersecurity jargon 'Zero day exploit', unpacked at reference 2. Doesn't look much more to me than a bit of jargon that people selling cybersecurity products and services might deploy to impress potential clients.

But depressing that both the Russian and Chinese governments appear to sponsor this sort of thing. A far cry from the leftism of people like Micheal Foot - or even Harold Wilson. Probably best not to get too sanctimonious though: I dare say counties like the US, the UK and Israel are all into this sort of thing. OK for them, as they are the good guys.

PS: Microsoft presumably has some naming convention for hacking groups, rather as weather people have naming conventions for storms. Hafnium being a once obscure metal which looks to be important in various tricky areas of the electrical industry.

Reference 1: https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2021/03/02/hafnium-targeting-exchange-servers/. There looks to be lots of work here for the chaps who look after IT infrastructure.

Reference 2: https://www.fireeye.com/current-threats/what-is-a-zero-day-exploit.html.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafnium.