i've been speculating upon the nature of the next big mess to hit the USA and my money is on a cyber attack. the exact nature of it is not what these cyber-war nutjobs are talking about, but rather, an attack which enables a vast proportion of the growing ocean of private information about citizens, specifically, so many names, addresses, SSNs and credit card numbers that it cripples the new internet based economy, as well as electronic banking. what would happen if there was so much data falling into the hands of internet fraudsters that they had to literally turn off electronic financial systems? wouldn't this damage the us economy and reputation as much as 911 or bp's oil spill? everyone has been raving about how great the cloud is but what happens if the majority of the cloud providers data centres get compromised and the data siphoned out and distributed to every cybercrime gang out there?
yep. that's exactly what would happen. it'd be quants all over again. fact of the matter is, and probably always will be, that human brains are both the cause of market movements and what is required to know when to buy in and when to sell up, and what causes bubbles is people without the market reading skills and clever con artists pumping up a market. bubbles are a product of psychology and when a computer can read people as well as people, computers will BE people and the problem will still be there. wins and losses happen at all levels in all markets and on all timescales, a bubble is just the precursor of a mass loser trade going down. in any case, the market's not just affected by people, it's also affected by the weather, natural disasters, disease epidemics, wars, industrial accidents, new types of crime hitting the bigtime and big operators throwing their weight around. it's time that people quit trying to wrap themselves up in cotton wool and face the chaos that is reality.
the description of the robot clearing mines made me instantly think of Stalker, as in the game, and the movie based on the old russian novel roadside picnic. replace explosive mine detonator device with bolts tied with cloth strips and the stalker saying 'clear to walk ahead' heheh
Slashdot Mirror
i've been speculating upon the nature of the next big mess to hit the USA and my money is on a cyber attack. the exact nature of it is not what these cyber-war nutjobs are talking about, but rather, an attack which enables a vast proportion of the growing ocean of private information about citizens, specifically, so many names, addresses, SSNs and credit card numbers that it cripples the new internet based economy, as well as electronic banking. what would happen if there was so much data falling into the hands of internet fraudsters that they had to literally turn off electronic financial systems? wouldn't this damage the us economy and reputation as much as 911 or bp's oil spill? everyone has been raving about how great the cloud is but what happens if the majority of the cloud providers data centres get compromised and the data siphoned out and distributed to every cybercrime gang out there?
yep. that's exactly what would happen. it'd be quants all over again. fact of the matter is, and probably always will be, that human brains are both the cause of market movements and what is required to know when to buy in and when to sell up, and what causes bubbles is people without the market reading skills and clever con artists pumping up a market. bubbles are a product of psychology and when a computer can read people as well as people, computers will BE people and the problem will still be there. wins and losses happen at all levels in all markets and on all timescales, a bubble is just the precursor of a mass loser trade going down. in any case, the market's not just affected by people, it's also affected by the weather, natural disasters, disease epidemics, wars, industrial accidents, new types of crime hitting the bigtime and big operators throwing their weight around. it's time that people quit trying to wrap themselves up in cotton wool and face the chaos that is reality.
the description of the robot clearing mines made me instantly think of Stalker, as in the game, and the movie based on the old russian novel roadside picnic. replace explosive mine detonator device with bolts tied with cloth strips and the stalker saying 'clear to walk ahead' heheh