Courtesy of people.howstuffworks.com
During the 2016 election, I reported my blog had come under Russian attack. My friends laughed. My gurus didn’t.
Lately, the blog has experienced another invasion, the source of which is unknown. Three hundred people have subscribed to my blog in the last month alone. They’re not real. They’re generated from a single web-address. Most of the time, the captcha keeps the intruders out, but on occasion, a bot finds its way in.
Unfortunately, increased security systems leads to a game change. I’m not impacted. But high-tech companies have discovered spies are reverting to old-fashioned methods to invade secured sites. Take the case of one high-tech company that knew it had a mole, even though its surveillance system couldn’t trace him or her. Finally, the company tore up floorboards and discovered the perpetrator by following the warm wire. The person they caught wasn’t an employee. She was a volunteer, a Chinese student who entered the United States on a student visa.
Once discovered, was the girl prosecuted and jailed? No. Proving she was a spy and not a victim was impossible. Besides, the head of the corporation didn’t want to admit China had breached security. Instead, escorted the young woman from the building and told her never to return. Writer Nick Bolton asserts this old-fashioned spy game is on the increase. (“Valley Of the Spies,” by Nick Bilton, Vanity Fair, Summer 2018, pgs. 65-67)
What’s scary about the vulnerability within high-tech companies is that they know more about us than our Defense Department. Remember how relieved we were when Apple refused to give the FBI codes to read its telephone encryptions? (Click) Well, today, why bother stealing codes. It’s easier to walk into the building
As for my motley blog, I’ve no way to tear up floorboards. I’ll have to hope my gurus find a tech approach to thwart the pests. I note the irony, however, that something old is becoming new again.
