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Christopher Burgess

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Foxconn Hacked! (Could It Be You?)

Posted: 02/14/2012 7:28 pm

The headline I read said, "Foxconn Hacked," and it shouted out and off the page, the underlying implication being that there might some downstream issues if Foxconn Technology group (part of the Hon Hai Precision Industry of Taipei and one of the largest contract manufacturers on the planet) had their infrastructure invaded, executive email collected and posted, etc. There just might be, but we'll let Foxconn and those who contracted their services noodle on that situation and work through their "all hands on deck" emergency.

Instead, let's focus on how this headline could have featured your company's name instead of Foxconn's, and let this be a teachable moment.

Action Required: Update your device's software! That's it.

All devices that utilize software are subjected to continued review and scrutiny as technological advances may reveal vulnerabilities that the vendor/creator could not have been aware of when the device was sold. Vendors provide revisions, updates and patches to address just this issue. But, if you don't update your software or execute the patch, then you have left open the "window of vulnerability." And that window of vulnerability is no longer one only known to the manufacturer, but is now known to any entity with the motivation to attack you, be they cyber criminals or cyber savvy protesting entities focused on your industry, they are counting on you not to update your software, leaving yourself as "easy pickens."

The headlines read, "Foxconn Hacked," but could it have just as easily had your name instead? Keep you, your company, and your customers safe by staying secure and closing those windows.

See the Guardian piece on the Hack.

 
 
 

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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
haystakt
01:03 AM on 02/15/2012
Thank you, Mr. Burgess, I forgot to take my inhumanity tablets, today.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
haystakt
12:47 AM on 02/15/2012
A teachable moment. Yes, Christopher Burgess.

The irony in your HuffPost blogger account being hacked and this casually condemnable blurb having been posted in your name, while being so beyond conscience that no one would dare ascribe it to one of your attuned moral character and sense of primitive ethical mores; this tactful irony, whereby the vague alarmist indecency of an intentionally-distracting reflection upon one of the most amoral and unethical corporations known to the workplace, guilty of a vast and haunting array of manners by which to profit off of brutal exploitation and inhumanity, that these words would be ascribed to one as sensible and as unquestionably sensitive as you to the notion of good faith and fair dealings in the workplace, it is only mercilessly clever that whoever (could it be you?) is out to do this much damage to your reputation would do so in so slick a manner:

to ostensibly defend an immensely powerful corporation which wields its wealth as a bludgeon upon the rights of the common man and woman in order to profit at their expense to the point where death is a happier alternative than finishing their workday; to distract from and to minimize and diminish, that crime against humanity by pointing out that FoxConn should only be held accountable to more closely-guard their equipment, for being hacked like you obviously were.

So what is to be taught, lest only that you would be such "easy pickens."