The news of the March hacking of the security at the Office of Personnel Management wasn't so bad because employee and contactors' personal data wasn't stolen is still disturbing. The point is that even though hackers are usually unsuccessful when trying to breach security in the public and private sectors, sometimes they are. It's irrelevant whether they are out to steal the data they need for identity theft, for blackmail or for government secrets. There should be accountability at multiple levels within an organization.
Everyone who knows me knows I am cheap. Not just frugal, but outright cheap. Just ask my wife every time I see a grocery bill. But I know we need food. And, guess what, folks? Computer systems need security. They need new firewalls. They need updated software to detect malware and to protect attacks. Above all, they need experienced, reliable people who can do penetration testing to check for vulnerabilities. The CIO needs to know not just how to hire IT security people, but how to fight for a bigger budget because, folks, the threats are nonstop. Nonstop.
About 15 years ago, my mother-in-law, now retired, used to work for a self-made multimillionaire whose son was allegedly part of a loose ring of people that was caught hacking into a large corporation. His son was a teenager who, by then, had some 10 years of computer experience. He was always bright and even early on, he would love to see what a computer could do besides load games. He knew he wanted to program his computer to turn on the lights in his room. When he was frustrated that his computer was too slow, "something happened" to it. It would fall down the stairs in school and break. One part of it would catch fire. Yeah, right, but his parents bought his lies hook, line and sinker and simply buy him a new one each time. Oh, and he had memorized his parents' credit card numbers so he would rack up unauthorized charges on their accounts. And at that time the term identity theft had not yet been in popular use.
Back to China and The Hackers. The hackers of the People's Liberation Army Unit 61398 the Shanghai-based Unit 61486 are not the only ones who are involved in cyber attacks. Hacking is not exclusive to China. Don't think for one nanosecond that there are hackers in other countries who are trying to break into U.S. government and corporate servers. They're after the military, education, banks, news, online gaming, dating, law enforcement and e-commerce. The world is crawling with hackers. Everyone needs to be concerned.
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