Random pissoff about “cybersecurity”.
In the computer world, because of “cybersecurity”, you have to keep turning on your password every time the computer decides to clear its history. You can’t access a PAID subscription without going through security measures like TSA scanning at the airport or courthouse.
In the real world a subscription keeps going as long as you pay every year. Payment is the only gate. You don’t need to answer a dozen IQ test questions before the mailman brings you the monthly copy of a magazine, or before the paper carrier throws the daily paper on your roof. You don’t need to change the combination lock on your safe every day, and you don’t need to change the key to your front door every day.
HACKING IS NOT NEW.
In real life papers and magazines and businesses ALWAYS shared and sold their mailing lists. Sometimes those lists got into the hands of criminals, but nothing much came of it. A criminal who wanted to steal or cheat could do it nicely without the help of those lists.
Same thing happens in the computer world. Businesses share “your” data just as they always shared “your” mailing lists. Sometimes those lists get into the hands of criminals, but nothing much comes of it. Criminals who want to steal your ID almost never get it from online lists; they get it in more physical ways.
Since nothing has changed on the criminal side, WHY did everything change on the security side?
To distract us from the real monstrous massive crime.
We should be worrying about the PHYSICAL products of China, which is basically EVERY product except cars. Note the recent “revelation” that Chinese solar power systems, including the big grid-scale inverters, have wifi kill switches.
We should also be worrying that most electronic products use wifi. As long as your toothbrush or vacuum cleaner is a wifi receiver, hostile countries or hackers can turn it off or change its properties.
If I were emperor I’d make some harsh laws and enforce them.
Every paid subscription must behave like offline subscriptions. If you’ve paid, you get to access the magazine or software instantly, without going through TSA scanning and three stages of Select The Stoplight and Select The Crosswalk. Your password can’t be changed, and you shouldn’t have to renew your permission every fucking day.
No device should be web-enabled unless it’s an explicit transmitter and receiver like a desktop computer or cellphone. You know those devices are connected, so you can think about security. You don’t always know that your vacuum or toothbrush is spying on you. There’s no ADVANTAGE to remote control of those devices.
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I’m mentioning vacuum and toothbrush for a specific reason. I didn’t know my vacuum was web-enabled until I started noticing that the computer’s wifi-connected sound pings every time I plug the vacuum into the charger. Then I looked at the label and saw “FCC licensed class B digital communication device.” I didn’t know that toothbrushes were web-enabled until the hygienist recommended using an ultrasonic toothbrush. I started to order the one she recommended, then looked closely and realized it has AI and wifi. Instead I bought a simpler non-rechargeable non-AI toothbrush. You don’t need software to vibrate at 30k, just a one-transistor oscillator and a properly designed solenoid.
Polistra's Mill 