Excessive Evolution

Considering our National Security as well as our personal individual security (both are becoming more closely related) let’s ponder some ideas. Garry Kasparov (World Champion Chess player) discusses an idea about evolution versus mastering. In the United States we are constantly evolving and moving on to the new and improved thing (iPhone, changes to social media platforms, self-driving vehicles, Alexa, constant addition of applications, 5G, and the list can go on and on. This constant evolution means that we do not spend enough time understanding the full list of possibilities within the previous system. We’ve moved on even though the previous system was not mastered. Consequently, there are many holes that were never patched up and offer an opportunity for bad actors to take advantage of these openings. This makes our work twice as difficult because not only do we have to go back and patch up problems that existed in the old systems, but we have to have an eye on the future issues that are going to inevitably create chaos.
An example of this (there are many similar and far more devastating examples) is during the 2018 midterms it was discovered that Iranians created fake Facebook ads and posts. Still, in 2019, Facebook was working on ridding the Iranian linked pages that had posed as liberal Americans pushing an anti-Saudi message along with a pro-Iranian one. The worst part of this is that almost one-third of these pages were created five years before. How long has this been going on while we’ve been blissfully unaware worrying about which bathroom to use and which words are offending us? How many made up arguments from foreign agents have been stealing the time and energy of Americans while causing us to protest, burn our own neighborhoods, and divide our families? This is embarrassing!
Although I will discuss cyber and cybersecurity in the future, I want to keep this short and offer one last thought. The U.S. has moved mostly every aspect of living to run via the internet and a form of computer system: hospitals, electricity, building security systems, dams, bridges, vehicles, phones, OPM, databases, grocery stores and temperature regulators, how we consume our media (Netflix, Youtube, Hulu, Social media etc), credit card machines (anybody still carry cash?), daily business through email and sending/receiving information, etc. – Another list that can go on and on. Now, what if the internet and satellites were suddenly hacked and shut off rendering all of these things useless? What if in the year 2020 there was a strange Covid pandemic and most people made their living via the internet? What if millions of people received Covid vaccinations but hacked electronic systems forced the machine to increase doses in the vaccines causing a more severe outbreak? Then people took to social media to explain how the government is trying to kill them with this vaccine? Madness ensues and soon the internet of things is completely shut off to stop the madness from spreading. Then we all sit in candlelit rooms afraid to step foot outside. Nah, that could never happen…have a great weekend!