Monday, November 22, 2010

Good morning, everyone. It was a lazy weekend. Cool and at times a bit wet. Not enough to make up for the rain deficit, though. And the temperature roller coaster continues. We woke to 60+ degrees this morning and expect something near 70. It won't stay long though--snow and highs in the high 30s by Thanksgiving. Perhaps we should rename the 'holiday' Black Friday Eve. Or maybe that won't be necessary since at least two major retailers (Sears and Kmart) have announced that they will be open Thanksgiving day. I always got a laugh out of the yearly campaigns by some Christians to 'put Christ back in Christmas.' They lost that battle over a century ago. But then the Church of Commerce has successfully taken a page out of the early Christian playbook--they have co-opted a popular holiday and made it their own as the Church of Commerce has done with all our other holidays. And its only commandment and sacrament is to buy something--a lot of something whether you need it or not.

MSNBC had this story this morning that I find interesting. US authorities have arrested a Malaysian man whose laptop contained a large amount of sensitive information from, among other sites, the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. The author asks what we might expect from governments like China and North Korea if a single individual can hack supposedly secure sites like a Federal Reserve Bank and defense contractors. Actually, I have been reading about some other even more disturbing events in cyberspace lately. For instance, there were at least two periods when data streams from the US was redirected through China thanks to an implanted virus. That data included Federal Government, banking, military and other supposedly secure and encrypted streams. I think it was late last year that one of the Baltic countries experienced a serious cyber attack that shut down their government, banking, and other networks. Though the attack was routed through Russia, no one was ever able to prove who actually was responsible.

2 comments:

Kay Dennison said...

I refuse to leave my home on Black Friday. There's nothing I want/need so badly to put myself through such an ordeal. In fact, there's really nothing I really want or need. I find that I've outgrown wanting things for Christmas.

Looking to the Stars said...

I just love the way stores come up with ways for us to spend our money. I have never been into Black Friday & like you I don't leave home.

I don't know why people can't see doing everything over the computer is not going to work. There are people who are master minds into getting the "secert code" to anything. Years ago, a laptop was stolen. A lot of government crap was on it, government loans etc. My hubby had taken out a government loan to go to college. That loan was on the laptop. What was it doing there? He had been out of school & the loan had been paid for 15yrs. But he was on that laptop & we had to do a lot of crap to protect yourselfs. I hate how everything goes on a computer & how easy it is for someone to get that info :)

you take care :)