Americans More Worried About Cybersecurity Than Terrorism 266
TheGift73 tips an article discussing a new study (PDF) which found Americans are now more worried about cybersecurity threats than they are about terrorism. Here's Techdirt's acerbic take:
"Well, it looks like all the fearmongering about hackers shutting down electrical grids and making planes fall from the sky is working. No matter that there's no evidence of any actual risk, or that the only real issue is if anyone is stupid enough to actually connect such critical infrastructure to the internet (the proper response to which is: take it off the internet), fear is spreading. Of course, this is mostly due to the work of a neat combination of ex-politicians/now lobbyists working for defense contractors who stand to make a ton of money from the panic — enabled by politicians who seem to have no shame in telling scary bedtime stories that have no basis in reality."
Re:fearmongering (Score:5, Interesting)
He who controls the media, controls the future.
Not really effective unless the population is uneducated. Considering the price of education has risen, er, 270% in the last 15 years... it would seem to indicate a concerted effort to turn an informed citizenship into mindless zombies, which has traditionally been the precursor to the fall of democratic government. I've found in the past 2 years or so people believing all kinds of non-sense that simply wouldn't have been tolerated before then. The anti-vaxxers, the global warming 'skeptics', creationism being taught in schools, homeopathic remedies... and the other day I had someone yelling at me because they thought that hair had nerves in it. It's become politically vogue to be a blithering moron.
Real concerns about cybersecurity. (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm concerned about cybersecurity, but I'm not concerned about cyber threats translating to physical threats, but rather economic threats, and they are very much real.
Namely, getting my identity stolen or having US technology secrets getting stolen by somebody who hasn't invested the R&D into it. Namely, 50 years of NASA research being stolen, which has already happened.
I'm sure there are many slashdotters out there who believe that tech secrets should be free, but I don't think so. When you put effort into a project, only to have somebody else rip off your idea and implement it with none of that cost, and therefore they can implement it cheaper than you can, making your entire effort go to waste, is really underhanded and in my opinion unfair.
And before somebody says getting your identity stolen is only the result of your own stupidity, think again. It's often necessary for you to give out important personal information in order to do business. And even in spite of their best efforts to keep their systems secure, even if they made all of the right choices and didn't let their security practices laps, zero day vulnerabilities always manage to show up.
For these reasons, I think cybersecurity should definitely be a concern.
polarization is not helpful. (Score:4, Interesting)
Regardless of my personal beliefs, I see no reason for evolution to exclude a deity or vice versa. /.; unless the nuts are right...
This polarization reminds me of the sports mentality of US vs THEM; and it troubles me that seemingly able people are so hamstrung by such nonsense.
Metaphysical belief is is a spectrum, and people subscribe to different regions of it.
I'm proud of my 98% Chimp ancestors (although my better half thinks I'm too modest). I can relate to Christian Humanists; and can't relate to intolerant fanatics, regardless of faith.
It isn't a contest, and we will never know the answer; unless the faithful are right, but then we will never get to mumble about it on
Another thing to keep in mind, personal experience (Score:4, Interesting)
Even if those aren't the proper purview of a government agency, it's still the case that we have person problems very similar to the sort of cybersecurity issues.
When someone writes a story about a bunch of DoD computers getting compromised by the Red Menace (that's China BTW), you have some sympathy since your coworker Fred had similar trouble when he was porn surfing over the weekend. Their machines got hacked, just like Fred's.
OTOH, it's not likely that someone tried to kill Fred for political purposes or to inspire fear in your work group.
Re:fearmongering (Score:3, Interesting)
If you want to talk about the idea of a creator in a deistic sense, as in something outside of known history, then yes; that's perfectly well and good and you can go on winding up the watches in your blind watchmaker's front-window display case. If you want to talk about the idea in an historical context, absolutely; undoubtedly creation myths have had a great impact on how people act and how empires were wound up. These are important matters that should not be ignored, lest we lose the lessons garnered from them.
But the moment you start suggesting that creationism is some kind of alternative to understanding biological evolution is the moment you step off the deep end. Kindly put, sir, you have just used very loaded and inarticulate language that is directly in conflict with what we know is philosophically, scientifically, and intellectually honest. In absolutely no way are there any genuine alternatives to the statement that we developed from single-celled organisms over the course of billions of years, and if you feel the need to distrust what I am saying I will be more than happy to teach you how disastrously misguided such a claim is, regardless of how much or how little biology you have been formally instructed in.
What does exist is the age-old reality of one of humankind's greatest inventions: the power of religion to provide answers to those who need them emotionally, even if they are brutally false and bestow us with an incredibly unwarranted sense of self-importance. Sometimes lies are necessary for social order to proceed, and the most urgently important lies are generally conveniently relevant creation myths.
(P.S., I'm retracting a mod point I gave you by making this post.)