“Once you turn a system on, it becomes part of the IT ecosystem, as we call it, and the interdependencies are tremendously complex. It becomes next to impossible to turn the system off again. You are stuck with it, and changing things is like replacing an engine mid-flight while crossing the Atlantic.” — Former IT salesman: ‘In part I blame the American mindset that took hold’ | Joris Luyendijk | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
“Here’s a true horror story. Global corporation X is storing all of its crucial data in encrypted form. To unlock the encryption you need special keys, which are stored in one central place, on one computer. “We sold them that system assuring them it was safe. One Friday afternoon, a new employee at X needs some extra capacity and notices this one computer doing nothing. He thinks it’s idling so he copies its contents to a temporary file, and lets the computer run whatever he needs it for. Then he tries to copy the contents back, which is impossible with encrypted files and this is how he discovers what he’s done: he has effectively erased the system that underpins all of X’s global operations. Their data are still there, but encrypted and the keys are lost. “Panic ensues, and my colleagues who installed the software jump on the first plane to X’s headquarters. There they discover just how lucky company X has been. The installation was relatively recent, so our people had a good grasp of its details. They went through the system and thank God, the switches had not yet been reset, meaning the keys could be retrieved. If X had rebooted its systems all would have been lost. “That was a really good outcome, but it demonstrates the risks with new advances in computer technology. Imagine our people had moved jobs or company X had rebooted the system. It sounds unbelievable but imagine a bank lost all of its data. It would make the panic during a bank run look innocent.” — Former IT salesman: ‘In part I blame the American mindset that took hold’ | Joris Luyendijk | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
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Insect architecture by James Rennie
The full text can be viewed here:
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“SimCity” for the Military: UrbanSim is a PC-based training simulation for practicing mission command in counterinsurgency operations. It comprises a practice environment, a web-based multimedia primer on doctrinal concepts of counterinsurgency and a suite of scenario authoring tools. (via UrbanSim Counterinsurgency Training App: Science Fiction in the News)
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David Pearson’s book cover for Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (via)
(Source: une, via fuckyeahwalterbenjamin)