As soon as news of the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack started circulating, another invasion began. Less serious, but still annoying, I and no doubt many editors started getting a stream of emails pushing expert comments and their inevitable cybersecurity software products. Not surprising, but the tide was pretty high this time. I haven't made an official count, but I think I'm up to at least a couple of dozen come-ons.
I can't blame public relations and marketing people for pushing the messages their clients pay to get out. In fact, I rely on many of them for referrals and access to sources, who provide useful input, including specific examples, experiences and advice on all the topics we cover.
However, the majority aren't so helpful, push blizzards of buzzwords and flog mostly useless baloney. Remember back when everything was "green" and "sustainable?" Of course, the biggest buzzword now is the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) itself, with machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) coming up on the outside.
By themselves, these words represent significant technical topics and disciplines. In the hands of shameless promoters, they're just thrown around like window dressing or adjectives for jacking up prices in stores and on menus. "Field greens" and "slicing tomatoes" always cost more.
I've likely said it before, but the information I go and find doesn't have an ulterior motive, at least initially. So, it's almost always more useful than the unsolicited stuff that has a paid-for agenda.
"Look here! Look over here!!" This and other classic invitations to smoke-and-mirror presentations may seem to be merely annoying. However, in the long run, they're actually dangerous and potentially destructive because they can distract users and consumers from the high-priority, high-value tasks they should be concentrating on and performing first. Plus, unnecessary distractions also waste much of the time that could be spent on getting essential jobs done.
If you think your hair's on fire, or you're just endlessly glomming on videos of always-on crises, then you're probably not doing much to make the world a better place. It's hard to be productive when you're frozen with fear.
Is there a defense from these lesser intrusions? The only one I can recommend is healthy skepticism based on a well-exercised memory supported by documentation.
When incidents like the Colonial Pipeline and JBS Foods meat-packing attack occur, I put them in their historical context among the prior attacks that I remember. This can make whatever snafu that comes next in the 24-hour "news" cycle seem less epic. This wider perspective unfreezes us, and let us pick a logical response.
Consequently, when we learn that Colonial used only single-factor authentication passwords for remote access to its VPN, we can ask what else should they and the rest of us be doing to actually improve our cybersecurity?
However, memory and context points out the other big snag and perhaps the reason why attention must be prioritized and sharp focus must be maintained. Unfortunately, many of us have a tendency to over-study and over-analyze far beyond when useful actions should have been taken. We're just like stalled graduate students, who always read one more book instead of finishing their theses or dissertations. On the editorial side, this is why talk and text are historically cheap; they're easy and don't require much effort.
Sadly, many of us try to look and sound like we're part of the solution, even though we may actually be part of the problem. Rather than suffering with time-sucking intrusions from outside, these are our self-inflicted distractions that arise from our own inertia and fear.
Again, the response is aided by memory, but it just needs a little added courage to get us unstuck. We may be disillusioned and jaded, but we can't let experience and age stop us from pointing out what's unspecifically fuzzy, unhelpful and wrong. So, keep pushing until they crack. We and our like-minded coworkers and friends are probably closer to breaking through than we think.
