For years now, cyber crimes have mostly been viewed through the prism of financial harm—essentially money and identities stolen. True, some cyber crimes over the years have also been calculated to invade privacy, taunt or embarrass (e.g., sexting, trolling, cyber stalking, cyber bullying, etc.) rather than just steal money or business secrets. But even in such circumstances, rarely did it feel like life or brick and mortar property were on the line. That perception is changing with news that Stuxnet was used to cause an explosion overseas and that multiple organizations (including hospitals) have had their data and property controlled by hackers to extort ransom payments.
What if Ferris Bueller and The HAL 9000 Coupled-Up?
One of the early popular culture references to computer hacking was in the film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” By today’s standards, Ferris’ hacking was relatively benign—reducing, online, his number of school absences. Perhaps then “2001: A Space Odyssey” is a more apt warning of the harm to come. In that film, the computer HAL murders one astronaut and attempts to kill a second during the ambitious mission to Jupiter. While not a hacking event, it is an ominous depiction of the severity of harm faced once humans make their everyday functionality entirely reliant upon computer systems. That future is upon us in the form of system glitches, cyber attacks, programming errors, and hacking, which pose all too real harm to humans and real property.
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