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Cybercrime: Defrosting and the Internet of Things
It was only a matter of time before someone, somewhere, contemplating their abilities for cybercrime, found the link between the Internet of Things, the linking of household and other machines to the internet, and a way to control or impede. There have been countless examples of people, across all branches and forms of social media, asking why their toaster, their washing machine, their refrigerator needs to be connected to the internet, why it needs to be available for software updates. A toaster is designed to toast bread, it has various levels of burning, a timer for the appropriate moment, and a mechanism to shoot the completed article out. A washing…
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Misinformation: the Thin-Skinned and the Gullible
A close friend of mine received some unwelcome post recently: a letter from the local police force with an accusation of insulting behaviour. It referred to a comment she had posted on a certain social media web site – well-known for its own lack of legal responsibility, partisanship and the politics of its owner – where she drew, in no uncertain terms, the original poster’s attention to a piece of misinformation from a German politician, well known for a wealth of false claims over the years, and described the further distribution of such fact-free propaganda as more than just foolish. The poster felt that their honour and credibility had been…
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The Reverse Dangers of Restaurant Reviews
Although a great lover of travelling and eating out, I rarely write reviews of the places I visit, the restaurants where I eat, the hotels I overnight in. It is enough for me that the food was enjoyable, that the room was comfortable, that the city or town had places of interest. Aside from which, there are so many reviews floating around the virtual world, boosting internet web sites and search engines more than the businesses being reviewed, it seems to be an overload. That is, unless I come across a brand new business, one which has not yet broken through into the public gaze, or been recognised by those…
