Food for thought on a blue Monday
’Tis impossible to be sure of any thing but Death and Taxes’
[The Cobbler of Preston by Christopher Bullock (1716)]
Maybe is blue Monday effect [1], maybe is just sheer experience, but over the years I have come to the conclusion that, in the cyber-world (that has become another view of the whole world), there are not two sure things, but three sure things; death, taxes and to be hacked [2]. Arguably, a pessimistic view, but based on the facts (maybe too long to expose in such a short blog) that systems are more and more connected, software is more and more complex and people writing software are still human; there are, and there will be always opportunities for entering, breaching and breaking your systems, no matter how updated they are and how many guards watch in the towers.
Humour me (or stop reading) and accept this statement. Then, the next question should be; What can we do to limit damages?
My thoughts; more and more we should focus, not only in first line of cyber defence (the outer walls) but also in secondary lines and inner firewalls to limit damage and isolate critical sections. Maybe we should learn what ships are already using [3] and try to make our system unsinkable [4]… or just try to [5].
No doubt this is fully related with Phoenix project [6] cyber security approach for EPES and the way things are done now and should evolve in the next future.
Just some food for thought for a blue Monday.
[1] Pettengill, G. N. (1993). An experimental study of the “blue-Monday” hypothesis. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 22(3), 241-257.
[2] Have you ever thing that your ideas are original? Google, that has become yet another view of the world renders 9.530.000 results if you look for “three sure things; death, taxes and to be hacked”….hardly original I guess.
[3] “SHIP COMPARTMENTATION AND WATERTIGHTINTEGRITY” from Ship Compartments
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/navy/nrtc/14057_ppr_ch3.pdf
[4] Floating Fantasy: Can a Seastead be Made Unsinkable? https://alfinnextlevel.wordpress.com/2014/06/07/floating-fantasy-can-a-seastead-be-made-unsinkable/
[5] Partridge, D. (2010). The seductive computer: why IT systems always fail. Springer Science & Business Media.
[6] Find more about Phoenix in http://www.phoenix-eu-project.eu/
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and Innovation programme under grant agreement N°832989. All information on this website reflects only the authors' view. The Agency and the Commission are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information this website contains.
