Did anyone celebrate the silver anniversary of Elk Cloner, the first recognized computer virus, last year? Elk Cloner, a virus specific to Apple II computers, was 25 years old in 2007. Elk Cloner primarily wrote bad poetry. Oh, heck, I've been known to do that. It came from Pittsburgh, PA. A high school student, I'm told.
Well, I wrote bad poetry in high school, too. Kept it to myself, though. Pretty much.
Today's viruses are a long way from writing bad poetry. Now your financial life is at risk. Note, not "your life" but "your financial life". You aren't worth as much as the ones and zeroes on your hard drive.
Another difference between "It Came from Pittsburgh" and today's malware (we don't call them "computer viruses" anymore. That shows how important they are in society. We've created a special language for them. They've been jargonized, an indication of social-psychological elevation in status) is that malware doesn't have to spend as much time going after desktops and laptops. Now people are carrying their financial lives around on their palmtops, pdas and the like. Walk down any city street and your wifi enabled palmtop tells you where you can link and how.
We're a (un)wired community. Thieves don't have to drag you into an alley and pull a gun on you, they can be sitting across the street from you, inside the coffee shop sitting at a table and sipping a latte. The sound of a trigger has been replaced by the click of a key. And forget somebody taking what's in your wallet and your watch, they just transferred your retirement funds to an offshore account.
It's a fairly thriving business, malware. Hey, maybe it's a new part of our growth economy? I wonder if they're looking for investors...
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