Washington Post has been particularly ridiculous this season

Undertoad · 12-31-2016, 11:56 AM

The WaPo headline of last night said Russian hackers penetrated the electrical grid through a utility in Vermont!!

It turns out there was a lone laptop involved, quickly isolated, infected with what the community calls "commodity malware" - a virus developed and then sold and widely spread. Created in Russia, likely -- but who used it? No-one can say right now!

In the light of morning day, the WaPo actually contacted the utility and got the details -- someone tried actual journalism! -- and decided to change their headline to something less ominous.

But by then the story had tweaked everyone's pleasure centers. This is how we end up with bubble facts. A virus created and sold by Russian hackers, making it onto a utility company laptop, is not "Russia hacking the power grid". In fact it is not actually NEWS -- talk to anyone in IT who's had a shitty accountant in the office, clicking on things with her laptop... were the Russians hacking my old AM/FM radio data services company too???

The idea that there is some kind of threat is only there for the drama of it. And that drama only works because we don't understand the whole thing. We don't understand, we don't know the facts, and we're entirely willing to BELIEVE. Ya remember Y2K?

12-31-2016, 11:56 AM	#1
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	Washington Post has been particularly ridiculous this season The WaPo headline of last night said Russian hackers penetrated the electrical grid through a utility in Vermont!! It turns out there was a lone laptop involved, quickly isolated, infected with what the community calls "commodity malware" - a virus developed and then sold and widely spread. Created in Russia, likely -- but who used it? No-one can say right now! In the light of morning day, the WaPo actually contacted the utility and got the details -- someone tried actual journalism! -- and decided to change their headline to something less ominous. But by then the story had tweaked everyone's pleasure centers. This is how we end up with bubble facts. A virus created and sold by Russian hackers, making it onto a utility company laptop, is not "Russia hacking the power grid". In fact it is not actually NEWS -- talk to anyone in IT who's had a shitty accountant in the office, clicking on things with her laptop... were the Russians hacking my old AM/FM radio data services company too??? The idea that there is some kind of threat is only there for the drama of it. And that drama only works because we don't understand the whole thing. We don't understand, we don't know the facts, and we're entirely willing to BELIEVE. Ya remember Y2K?

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