Since the Trump election, the media coverage surrounding hacking and cyber-security is soaring to new heights. Now, we find out that the CIA can take control of our TV sets and watch us as we slob on the sofa binging on four episodes of The Affair or Game of Thrones while doing absolutely nothing to consume our required ‘five a day’ (or is it ten?) and swilling down three days worth of alcohol allowance.
Most of us will be vaguely interested by the hacking revelations but, apart from the exotic movie-like nature of the revelations, few people under sixty actually worry about personal privacy. Life is too short and we know that there is no reason why the government should have the slightest interest in our daily lives. We don’t live in a police state. At least, not yet.
We take a small interest in personal security where credit card fraud is concerned; it’s not that unusual and most people will know someone who has been a victim at some point or other. Even then, the banks seem to behave well in most cases and the only consequences are usually a small amount of inconvenience and slight feeling of intrusion and violation. These fade away soon enough, as does our interest in staying more secure online.
None of the salacious media gossip changes the way we think about these things. Phone hacking scandals don’t make us think that our own calls are being listened to; we install spyware on our teenager’s phones without ever imagining that anyone is doing the same to us; we watch films and police series where CCTV and satellite images are used to track every movement of a criminal and mostly don’t spare a thought to the fact that we are on film as well.
We are just ordinary people. No-one is interested in what we do.
The rate at which our lives are being propped up by technology is accelerating at a dizzying pace and the Internet of Things is only just beginning. Soon enough, our fridges and heating and lighting and cookers and door locks and water supply and electricity supply and parking and shopping habits and driving patterns and everything else will all be wired up and integrated into cloud-based databases.
Will we understand what is happening, how it works and what it means? I doubt it. We don’t understand it now and it isn’t going to become any easier.
But, we’re just ordinary people. No-one is interested in what we do.
That’s the way I’ve always looked at this subject and how I sleep well at night. And, to be honest, I still hope and believe it’s true.
When I started my research for Best Eaten Cold, however, I began to be surprised and shocked by what I found. I wasn’t looking on the Dark Web or speaking to spymasters, I was only talking to a few people who worked in data security and googling things. The shocking thing was that, whatever sinister twisted requirement I came up with to torment my protagonist, the solution was right there – not expensive, not particularly complex, not requiring a huge government organisation.
We are just ordinary people. No-one is interested in what we do.
That is only partly true. Unless we’re criminals or potential terrorists, as a general rule the government isn’t going to be interested in us. But what about other ordinary people who know us? They have a connection and an interest. Do any of them have an axe to grind?
If people understood more about how easy it is to hack into someone’s life, they might take a little more care about their personal online security and, perhaps more importantly, take great care not to make enemies.