Anarchy Rising
Someone close to me had a stroke at the beginning of April. She returned home at the beginning of June.
3 weeks later one of the many home health care workers who came to provide therapy and aid got hold of her checkbook, copied the routing and account numbers, and used the info, along with other lowlifes to whom the numbers were sold, to make bill payments via phone. Total damages were more than $7000. Almost all of it’s been returned.
3 weeks ago, after spending around 10,000 hours on 5 or 6 different desk and laptop computers over the past 10 years, I was hacked into. I’ve got four screens, so it was a sci-fi nightmare to see grotesque image after grotesque image pop-up along with a demand for a credit card number that would cause the attack to cease. I manually shut the machine down, and paid an IT expert to clean it up and restore the data.
In response to these unsavory and disheartening incidents, I’ve spent a decent amount of time talking with the bank’s fraud unit and the local police precinct. They both said that petty and not so petty crime was rising as people who wouldn’t normally step over the line are driven by need to do so.
Petty crime is a form of anarchy. It’s a precursor to greater civil unrest. Kids coming out of juvey or rehab, working their programs, are going to find nothing in the way of legitimate work. Can you say recidivist?
And regardless of what the stock market does today or in the next year or two, the level of unemployment is going to rise and strains are going to be put on the very system that keeps people in line by making them part of it.
I’m looking into prison stocks. I don’t know if there’s a pure play on bologna or spam, but if Buffet’s looking for something long term, he might start there.
You gotta hope some of the white collar bastards whose greed and deception caused this mess end up sharing cells with some of the skells who returned to crime in order to make ends meet.
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I despise computer hackers, I mean come on how coward-ish do you have to be to hover behind a scene and show grotesque images to someone and demand a credit card. I mean there are those who go out in person and demand the credit card and possibly use force, but through the internet you must be afraid. Nowadays there are ways to track hackers and the government does track them.
I agree with the last two paragraphs all the way, since the economy is in a downfall right now, you have people reverting to crime to pay for their daily needs. Honestly if i can invest in a prison or two, I believe I probably would never have to work again, considering the fact that there has always been crime. I have a feeling that it will only get worse. We need to really crack down on some of the crimes committed, like a sex offender is released early, for testimony in another case, that my friend is crap. Give people there actual sentence good behavior in prison doesn’t necessarily mean good behavior out of prison.
hi Neema. the theme that runs through your comment, to me, is a desire for justice. may you be granted your wish.
stay in touch. LK
First of all, I find it incredibly interesting the manner in which you were hacked. Such a variety of virus and/or GUI-based attack is incredibly rare these days, and it makes me wonder if maybe you HAVE been hacked before on a much less visible basis.
To Neema: it is not an act of cowardice to “hide” behind a screen and steal a credit card number, just like it is not an act of cowardice for a bank robber to wear a ski mask to hide his identity. It is a criminal act, but not a cowardly act.
There is a fine line between bravery and stupidity. It is simply STUPID not to hide your face in the act of a crime. Fact is, hackers are less likely to be caught than your muggers with their faces shown. Why? Because they are not reckless and take precautions with their identities. It is not cowardly to rob a bank, but to do so without concealing your identity makes it so even if you DO get away, you will be on the run until either they find you or you manage to distance yourself from civilization (at which point the money you just stole has no meaning to anybody).
Also, let me clear up the fact that a hacker is merely somebody in the pursuit of knowledge. A computer criminal who breaks into your stuff is called a cracker.
Finally, let me mention that your ever-so-precious credit card number has a lot less meaning in the big picture than you think it does. So does your credit score, your house, your car, anything that you see as concrete. The only things that you can truly say have meaning are the things that can help you to survive in times of political uprising and/or attack. The only thing necessary to your survival is your own sense of fluidity, of being able to escape a bad situation. Stop worrying so heavily about such trivial things as credit cards.