Saturday, June 11, 2011

Why Am I Not Afraid Any More?

So i've just finished watching the F1 qualifying on Saturday afternoon, and my thoughts turn to work (hey, why not?). I've seen a few stories in the news these last 7 days, and by rights we should probably be gathering up tins of fray bentos, packing the cat, and heading for the hills.


Instead I'm wondering if we'll see rain in Montreal tomorrow and Mclaren can put in a decent race pace. What's wrong with me? Why am I not afraid any more?

One reason might be that I've become jaded, inured to breathless security scare stories by... well, people like me - other infosec professionals. I hope we haven't cried wolf, though hunting moose in packs does sound like a lark. Millenium bug syndrome - over hyped by folks that stand to benefit!

Perhaps another reason could be that we've come to expect the odd breach, just like we've come to expect we'll probably catch the dreaded summer cold at some point (another of my excuses for snoozing through the week and not blogging any of these stories, i've been under the weather!), we come to expect security breaches which kill off a few weak members of society, but most people shrug it off with little ill effect. We're now used to cleaning up after the bad guys? Familiarity breeds contempt.. and maybe a hint of complacency?

Of course, there's another option - I haven't really felt the repercussions of any of these issues this week. I don't use an RSA token, own no consoles(!), there's relatively few pictures of me acting the goat on facebook, and my medical history doesn't appear to have been indexed by google (yet, at least). Could it be I just need to have a security breach drop something on my toes?

Anyway, I promise to try and pay a little more attention to the bad stuff going on in our digital domain, but if I fail to get excited by the latest round of apocalyptic damp squibs, cut me some slack will ya? ;)