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Taken Over By Aliens? Google Has It Covered
swandives writes "Imagine what would happen if all the Google engineers turned rogue and held the world's Gmail accounts to ransom. Or if aliens attacked earth and wiped California off the map. Seems the folks over at Google's enterprise division have already considered these scenarios. CIO is running an article, as part of a larger interview with Google Enterprise director of security, Eran Feigenbaum. He's a fascinating guy — in his spare time he practices magic and mentalism, and you may also have heard of him as Eran Raven, a contestant from the NBC television show Phenomenon."
Surely there are bigger and better things that Google could be diverting their resources to?
Okay, so the 'engineers turned rogue' part might work out fairly well, but seriously, aliens?
In other news, how do I apply for a job here. I'm pretty sure I can come up with all kinds of silly scenario's - and get paid for it.
"Imagine what would happen if all the Google engineers turned rogue and held the world's Gmail accounts to ransom"
Ummm...we can just track them down and dangle them out of a window until they agree to release the accounts? We're talking about software engineers here, not special forces commandos.
An alien attack is a really unlikely scenario. Aliens aren't going to deal with the incredibly non-trivial problem of interstellar travel and then decide to go wack the primitive humans. And if they do decide to do that, they are likely to be so far advanced from us that it won't make much of a difference, since humans will be wiped so quickly that Google will be irrelevant. However, the alien scenario does two things that are good: First, a lot of the worst-case scenarios are things which one won't think of in advance. By using scenarios like the alien scenario they help cover a lot of reactions to unanticipated very bad scenarios that no one has even come up with. Second, this sort of thing helps make security wargaming fun. The fact is that a lot of standard wargaming and largescale simulations can be frightfully dull. Using something like aliens helps get people actually involved and potentially have fun with the situation, which will mean they will pay more attention and put more effort in.
what about the san Andreas fault going off and makeing CA split off from the rest of the usa?
aliens are more technically advanced than us.
Implementing such a thing on gmail would have to be outrageously expensive.
why do we assume aliens are more technically advanced than us.
Because they have proven to be so. For example, Japanese or Korean people, who would be aliens if on U.S. soil, are said to have access to far faster Internet connections than U.S. natives. And China already has electronics manufacturing know-how that the United States no longer has.
After reading that they've hired a reality TV "psychic" as their director of security, I'm suddenly feeling that it might be the right time to part ways with my investment there.
Not that I'm saying Google is easy to con or anything. I'm sure this guy's non-reality-show qualifications as a security expert are impeccable and that he's not at all a con-man shyster who has totally played a bunch of sucker-ass marks in the top ranks of Google at all.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
A magician in charge of security? Sounds reasonable. Now you see it... NOW YOU DON'T!
I rarely respond to comments. Also, don't ask for clarifications: a brain and Google are faster, believe me!
That's a really good probing question!
Paul: Father... father, the sleeper has awakened! - Dune
When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth by Cory Doctorow is rather tongue-in-cheek but Google features prominently in this particular end of the world scenario..
Never email donotemail@WeAreSpammers.com
"(Discussing our first contact with aliens) is a bit like iguanas on the Galapagos Islands sitting around trying to figure out how to treat the first human visitors. Should we offer them dead flies, or live flies? Shall we line up the flies in a row? How shall we defend ourselves? All of that is irrelevant."
-- Seth Shostak, SETI
Well, I imagine many companies could save a decent chunk of money every year by not having to put "Contains fairydust known to the state of California to cause cancer."
Cool post bro, highfive \o
That second link in the OP reads just like an advertisement for Google Cloud services. They didn't even try to make it look like a technical discussion. Maybe that's what is meant by "transparent"?
No biggie. According to a machine on the DOD network a nuclear missile is pointed at the Google campus.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.