One of the most-viewed stories on this site is a blog post and graphic
that I put together last year to illustrate the ways that bad guys can
monetize hacked computers. But just as folks who don’t bank online or
store sensitive data on their PCs often have trouble understanding why
someone would want to hack into their systems, many people do not fully
realize how much they have invested in their email accounts until those
accounts are in the hands of cyber thieves.
This post aims to raise awareness about the street value of a hacked
email account, as well as all of the people, personal data, and
resources that are put at risk when users neglect to properly safeguard
their inbox's.
Nothing is harder to see than things we believe so deeply we don't even
see them. This is certainly true in the "security space," in which our
narratives are self-referential, bounded by mutual self-interest, and
characterized by a heavy dose of group-think. That narrative serves as
insulation to filter out the most critical truths we know about our
work.
An analysis of deeper political and economic structures
reveals the usual statements made in the "security space" in a new
context, one which illuminates our mixed motivations and the
interpenetration of over worlds and underworlds in our global society.
Crime and legitimacy, that is, are the yin/yang of society, security,
and our lives. You can't have one without the other. And nobody should
know this better than hackers.
