...we all think of war as bombs and tanks and fast planes that give Pentagon geeks all forms of war porn. But war doesn’t have to be waged with bombs. Cyber war can kill just as well as bombs, and doesn’t take out the infrastructure.
So, the story goes that some hacker saw in a Wikileaks email, that the NSA had created a Malware, and this hacker gleaned it and unleashed it on the world. Called Ransom-ware, the virus gets in your hard drive and encrypts all your data. It is then useless to you. Then the hacker tells you that for a price, he will send you the key to decrypt all that info and you get your computer back.
This letter isn’t a Public Service Announcement about explaining how to back up your data. It isn’t about running updates and buying good antivirus software. This letter is about realizing something very nasty about our current world. What you just saw with this virus hitting 150 countries and 200K computers, was just a trial run. A warning. A shot across the bow.
First off, let’s consider a few things. In China, ATM’s went dark. Remember all those supposedly paranoid articles I wrote, saying that “What if one day you woke up and the grid was down? No power, no ATM’s, no groceries, etc?” Remember? Well, in a trial run, a lot of people just saw what can happen. Consider this… you have money at the XYZ bank. Or do you? No, what you have is a slip of paper, or an electronic read out that says you have an account with “X” amount of money in it. If the BANKS systems go down, you’re not getting anything. Nothing. Not a penny. Ask the Chinese that day. Thousands couldn’t get a single “Yuan” out of their bank.
In Britain, hospitals went down. Surgeries postponed. Clinic’s closed. It is believed some PEOPLE DIED. All because (supposedly) some shaggy hacker let loose this ransom ware. But there was something telling about this, and you can say I’m being a conspiracy nut…that’s fine. Just ponder it….. first off it attacked Windows XP. That’s an old operating system that MSFT ended true support of. So it wasn’t as if this attack was on the newest or most widely used equipment.
But secondly, they demanded payment in “bitcoin”. Why bitcoin? Well it’s widely known to be pretty anonymous. Without some really high end forensic technology sleuthing, you can’t find out who’s sending or receiving payments. Do you think the CIA, FBI, DHS, DNI, and the other 15 intelligence agencies, along with our friends at the IRS, and of course the Federal reserve and Central bankers…do you think they like the idea of someone being able to be paid without them able to trace you??
So , what if this attack on outdated software, demanding bitcoin wasn’t just some 14 year old kid’s idea? What if the “big players” allowed it to happen ( especially the speed at which it replicated) for a purpose? I find it way too coincidental that following an amazingly blistering run, where bitcoin went from 1400 to 1700 dollars in under a week, a ransomware attack goes out, WORLD WIDE, demanding bitcoin for payment.
Do you suppose that a narrative will come forth suggesting that Bitcoin has to be reined in, because the “bad guys” can use it for nefarious deeds like drugs, hookers, murders and ransom ware? Bet on it. In fact, a “test run” like we just saw kills a lot of birds with one stone. First they can use it to attack bitcoin. Again, notice how this went global. Just like bitcoin is global. Second, by infecting older software, they can force companies to go buy a ton of newer computers and software programs.
Now, here’s the real issue. Whether you like him or hate him, Snowden “told” us a lot of stuff. Even the movie, “Snowden” which is of course “amped up” to be exciting, lays out some truths that either the American population missed, or is too dumbed down to think about. In the movie there’s a part about how they had inserted “kill switches” in virtually all the hardware and software around the world. The idea being that if a country decided not to be our ally, or went rogue or what have you, with the flip of a switch at the NSA, that country goes dark.
That’s dams, trains, airports, cell towers, power stations, electrical grids, banks, everything. Now you can’t call that a conspiracy, because we just saw how the NSA had created a “back door” into Windows XP that could be exploited. Well guess what? That’s amateur stuff. In the last 8 years, virtually everything that comes out of the factory has someone’s kill switch already built in. Hidden malware in software. Remember the furor over the TV’s that were spying on people and sending info back to Samsung and vizeo? LOL, well if a stupid TV can come out of the factory with microphones and camera’s in them and send info back to the manufacturer…don’t be silly enough to think that every router, every splitter, every control box, every Windows 10, every…everything, is already got a bug in it.
The question is…who’s in control of the bug? The NSA? Sure. But are they the ONLY ones? What about say… the Mossad? Maybe they’ve got some control bugs planted? Or how about the UK’s MI5? Think their intelligence could have some kill switch/malware hidden in devices around the world? I think you’d be childish not to.
Folks, we all think of war as bombs and tanks and fast planes that give Pentagon geeks all forms of war porn. But war doesn’t have to be waged with bombs. Cyber war can kill just as well as bombs, and doesn’t take out the infrastructure. Viruses, Phishing scams in Email’s, etc, are just the low rung of the ladder. Embedded kill switches in every Window’s computer? Now you’re talking big trouble.
Ya know how you’ll be sitting there and all of a sudden you get the dreaded “Microsoft needs to update, don’t turn off your computer?” They just hit out of the blue. Well imagine the MILLIONS of windows computers out there and if one day they all said “Microsoft has been told to disable Windows.” And it went dark. For good. How do you think things would look around your town? Not so hot.
I’m beyond trying to scare you all. This isn’t science fiction, it’s real. The developments at the military departments pertaining to artificial intelligence is growing exponentially. The Internet can at the very same time be the 8th wonder of the world, and the most dangerous thing we’ve ever created. Watch Snowden the movie. There’s a lot of truth that they let go in that movie, more than I’d have imagined they’d allow.