By now you heard about the WANNA CRY ransomware attack.. or know it personally … ..throughout the globe starting Friday, a massive coordinated attack hit computers and companies. Even nations had railways affected.. hospitals were hit.. Just about nothing was off limits.
By Monday the fear continued. While it didn’t spread as fast and ferociously as it did last week, the palpable potential was there for crisis and heartache on Windows XP system around the globe.
Organizations affected were FedEx, National Health Service hospitals in the UK, Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK in Tyne and Wear, Renault, Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, Russian Railways and MegaFon, Romania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Telenor Hungary, German railway company Deutsche Bahn, Telefónica and several other large companies in Spain, several parts of the European Union, Brazil’s São Paulo Court of Justice and Vivo, China’s PetroChina and Public Security Bureaus, India’s Andhra Pradesh Police, Indonesia’s Dharmais and Harapan Kita hospital, and many others.
Today, some potential revelations began to come out.. potentially NSA hack code was used. Maybe even North Korean sleeper cells! The jury is out.. The FBI, without Comey, most likely has interest.. as do so many others who just took part in a nationwide drill in May for cyber security..
This all brought up an intensely interesting question in my mind.. Thet real idea that there is a dangerous machine in your living room. Your bedroom. Your office. It has the power to change you life. And destroy it.
Think of your own world where ransomware takes over your machine. Where your family photo albums and monthly budget get frozen in time.. where just about every piece of YOU gets taken for price.
Machines, for as much as you may scoff at the notion, have become a part of the family! It is reviled when people to be taken hostage. Machinery and computers becoming victims of the same fate would have been laughable a decade ago but now, they are so intertwined with just about everything in the human experience, it would matter.
A lot.
Can you live without a machine in your life? Maybe you can become accustomed to life without Facebook or Twitter.. perhaps Instagram being gone would eliminate the need to take photos of your food with colorful autos around the plates. But banking? Health? Work? Communication? Shopping? It is all online. All of the time.
And no, you cannot live without it.
It is now beyond just the idea of convenience. With each new shopping mall closure or ATM are getting a hip new chip, we are more in the Matrix. More in the vibe of machinery. And as much as I hate the ‘Matrix’ comparison it’s so true.
So life without machinery could and would lack safety… we could potentially become crippled.
Not just Johnny Depp and some Pirates of the Caribbean sequel, but real life. Real true meaningful life.
Ransomware is even more invasive than a virus. A virus has no concern.. it spreads witouth knowledge of you. Ransomware gets to know you real well. Your secrets. Hopes. Fears. Messages. Everything.
And if you don’t pay, the dark web gets to know you too. Along with anyone willing to buy you for pennies on the dollar.
That machine in your house…
Your hopes and prayers are within.
Ransomware can take that all away.
