A hacking group has exposed a huge batch of “secret information” from Novo Nordisk, the Ozempic company, asking for $25 million ransom. Apparently they worked through a Github area where Novo stored some of its code.
The usual sides are saying the usual things. Lawyers are setting up class action suits to “compensate” customers who were not actually harmed by anything. The lawyers will get a far larger ransom than the hackers, and the “harmed” customers will get a few dollars.
In reality “information” doesn’t matter. Novo Nordisk has a complex supply chain of factories running through complex procedures to make drugs. They also own a chain of bribed media, doctors and NGOs to boost Ozempic everywhere. A competitor would take years to match the chains.
On the other side, these hackers have also organized a factory of acquired skills and programming tools. Ordinary people don’t have the time or organization to expose data. We still have to wade through the prickly underbrush of motorcycles and crosswalks to maintain the fiction of “security”.
When we worry about “our precious data”, we’re falling for a scam. All data is public. Anyone can figure out anything, given the right combination of experience and intelligence.
The worry itself is the biggest extortion.
When media stirs up panic over hacks, media gets clicks and companies selling “security” get money.
In every area from government to automobiles to pharma to hacking, SKILL is what counts. If you’ve learned how to do something, and you have the tools and facilities and permissions to do it conveniently and profitably, you have what you need.
Security doesn’t stop criminals, it injures non-criminals.
Polistra's Mill 