Who’s Afraid of the Computer Society By Brian Simpson

     Don’t you just love computers and IT, how truly easy and exciting it has made life? And, what a great idea it was for the West to put everything on-line, especially medical records and the like. Nobody would ever hack into it and bring the whole system to its knees, could they? That’s just Y2K nonsense.

     However, hackers have done precisely that: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-security-hospitals-idUSKBN18820S; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4502384/Global-task-force-launched-snare-cyber-attack-gang.html.

     The ransomware worm has affected not only hospitals, but shops, factories and schools, locking up over 100,000 computers across the West. New versions of the worm are expected. What is interesting about this is that it is probably not the product of cyber warfare by either Russia or China, but could be one lone crazy IT genius who is extremely unhappy with the system. It raises the issue about what a nation which is really good with computers could do if they put their mind to it. Our IT future is one where IT will doom itself to extinction.