I bet there are computer hackers attempting to breach my firewalls and steal my personal information right now. Cliff Stoll's "The Cuckoo Egg" has been enlightening and a little frightening. Thinking about how facilely the hacker Markus Hess was able to exploit simple careless acts of system administrators is appalling. In today's day and age extreme precautions are taken while installing a new system to make sure all of the passwords are reset. Some computer systems require that users reset their passwords every three months, and don't permit user access until these changes transpire.
It is fascinating how hopeless people feel when their computer has been hacked. It feels like someone is reading your personal journal right in front of your face, and you have no control to stop them. Whether firsthand or through an immediate friend or family member, we have all experienced some form of computer viruses. They are nasty little bugs that are impossible to kill. And even if you kill most of the bug, they persistently return. The future has an even bigger playground for these cyber spies to meticulously lay cuckoo eggs in our systems. Security has to get tighter to anticipate the growing intelligence and cleverness of the escalating slew of hackers. Only by preparing for the worst can we amply safeguard our confidential data.
A bit of understanding by the general populous could go a long ways in helping with this. Sure, the techies know how to avoid simple traps, but many of the average users do not. So many problems could be avoided if we all had some common sense or at least understood the possible consequences of making all our passwords "password".
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