I fell for this trick, as did alot of the people in my office, but there are some important points before you reinforce your ignorant military stereotype.
1. This wasn't like real phishing. The website didn't ask for any real information, just a name and e-mail address.
2. Soldiers are used to getting free shit. The Army MWR does give out free tickets to amusement parks.
3. The e-mails were sent from trusted addresses at headquarters. This is obviously not a good excuse, as it's the number one thing that causes these types of things, however it did add to the problem.
Would you really be so suspicious of a "phishing" website that didn't actually ask for any personal data? I think most people's red flags for phishing go off when they are asked for a social security number, password, or other more personal information. How many times in a year do you provide your name and e-mail address to a website that you don't really trust in order to get some service from that website?
That being said, I should have known to look at the URL, but I didn't. If only 30% of people signed up for the website, I think it may be actually be a good thing. That means that the training that army does to prohibit things like this is working. The thing here is that you have to acknowledge the difference between military and civilians when forming your opinion. As a civilian you don't often have people giving you free shit, but in the military it's a common occurrence.
I can't think of a really good analogy, but if you received an e-mail from your friend telling you that you could get in on a World of Warcraft expansion early beta test, you click the link, and then a page asks you for your e-mail address and password, there's a good chance that most people wouldn't notice that http://www.worldofwarcraft.blizard.net/beta is not the real server. And since it's just asking for an e-mail and name you probably wouldn't care.
I don't know if I've made my point but anyway there it is.
but was there not cries about loss of work when the assembly line came to be, and continued on to become increasingly automated?
Yes, and it is still a problem. Go to any industrial town in the mid-west U.S. and you can see the effects.
Although you are correct about English not being the most commonly spoken language (second to Chinese), it is definitely the most spoken language on the internet, which is probably the more relevant point of discussion [http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm].
Also comparing the US against the rest of the world is a ridiculous. The iMDB lists 241697 English movies, certainly a pervasive amount of cultural content. (The iMDB lists an obviously low count of ~4000 Mandarin movies)
Anti-americanism has it's place, but not belligerence.
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I fell for this trick, as did alot of the people in my office, but there are some important points before you reinforce your ignorant military stereotype.
1. This wasn't like real phishing. The website didn't ask for any real information, just a name and e-mail address.
2. Soldiers are used to getting free shit. The Army MWR does give out free tickets to amusement parks.
3. The e-mails were sent from trusted addresses at headquarters. This is obviously not a good excuse, as it's the number one thing that causes these types of things, however it did add to the problem.
Would you really be so suspicious of a "phishing" website that didn't actually ask for any personal data? I think most people's red flags for phishing go off when they are asked for a social security number, password, or other more personal information. How many times in a year do you provide your name and e-mail address to a website that you don't really trust in order to get some service from that website?
That being said, I should have known to look at the URL, but I didn't. If only 30% of people signed up for the website, I think it may be actually be a good thing. That means that the training that army does to prohibit things like this is working. The thing here is that you have to acknowledge the difference between military and civilians when forming your opinion. As a civilian you don't often have people giving you free shit, but in the military it's a common occurrence.
I can't think of a really good analogy, but if you received an e-mail from your friend telling you that you could get in on a World of Warcraft expansion early beta test, you click the link, and then a page asks you for your e-mail address and password, there's a good chance that most people wouldn't notice that http://www.worldofwarcraft.blizard.net/beta is not the real server. And since it's just asking for an e-mail and name you probably wouldn't care. I don't know if I've made my point but anyway there it is.
He didn't use the term "only"
but was there not cries about loss of work when the assembly line came to be, and continued on to become increasingly automated? Yes, and it is still a problem. Go to any industrial town in the mid-west U.S. and you can see the effects.
Although you are correct about English not being the most commonly spoken language (second to Chinese), it is definitely the most spoken language on the internet, which is probably the more relevant point of discussion [http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm]. Also comparing the US against the rest of the world is a ridiculous. The iMDB lists 241697 English movies, certainly a pervasive amount of cultural content. (The iMDB lists an obviously low count of ~4000 Mandarin movies) Anti-americanism has it's place, but not belligerence.