Between the hauntingly large volume of sugar we all consume and strangers knocking on our door for an extended period of time, there is no denying that Halloween is a scary time. All of us at DomainTools decided this would be a fun opportunity to touch on four ongoing and overdone scare tactics in the Cyber Security industry to deviate from the Halloween hysteria.
IPv4s ARE ALL GONE:
Anyone involved in information technology is privy to this uninspired scare tactic. This conversation can be traced all the way back to 2009 (experts estimated that IPv4s will be exhausted by 2011). This pattern of fear has continued on a consistent basis (2010, 2011, 2015). Needless to say, we are still scraping by with IPv4. We do recognize that IPv4 exhaustion exists, but we are not seeing negative effects as a result of the shortage in our day to day networking lives.
All of Your Wearable Possessions Will Turn on You
Whether you were at Black Hat and learned about the illustrious Jeep hacking, or the Business Insider article that highlights how hackers can use refrigerators for evil- it feels as if all of our worldly belongings are out to get us. With this in mind, the Disney animated film “The Brave Little Toaster” has taken on a whole new meaning (maybe the toaster was the antagonist all along…).
Hackers are Now Sending out Complimentary Heroin
Per the Brian Krebs article that was published earlier this month, hackers are now sending hard drugs as an apology for their previous hacks (ok, so that isn’t exactly how the story unfolded). Turns out that outing a hacker backfired, but fortunately, Krebs’ quick wit saved him an uncomfortable discussion with local law enforcement.
Hacking in Mainstream Entertainment Media
If working in a SOC (security operations center) or on an Incident Response team doesn’t offer enough quality time spent with hacking, the entertainment industry has caught the hacking bug. In this past year, there have been multiple TV shows focused on this concept (CSI Cyber, Mr. Robot, Scorpion) and movies (namely Blackhat). Hacking themes have been tossed into the spotlight. If you are interested in a more in-depth look at hacking culture, check out our two part series on hacking movies: Part 1 & Part 2.
The entertainment industry has a propensity to highlight the more dramatic aspects of hacking, which is not to say that we in the “real” world are impervious to attack! These film and TV portrayals of hacking are a good reminder to be vigilant, but not afraid.
