• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, May 16, 2017

We live in a dysfunctional society, and it’s getting worse. And this isn’t about the logjam in Congress: We’re referring to cyber security.

Consider just a few of the recent episodes that, when you add them up, seem to pose as great a threat as terrorism:  

• A bad actor somewhere, possibly involved with North Korea, almost brought down hospitals, governments, businesses and individual computers on Friday with a global Malware attack. It demanded ransom in bitcoin to let these entities back into their systems.
• Hackers, allegedly from Russia, have interfered in our election, and those of other countries, using content from emails that they have been able to access. It makes you wonder if we are headed for “cyber conflict toe-to-toe with the Ruskies,” to paraphrase a politically incorrect line from "Dr. Strangelove." 
• Hackers threatened to release Disney’s summer movie  — “Pirates of the Caribbean” — if the company didn’t pay a hefty ransom. Disney has refused, Barrons reports. 

Governments have been paralyzed by these episodes. It took a 22 year-old savant, working at home, to solve Friday’s WannaCry problem. And the private sector has mostly stumbled its way through them.

Take that technological giant Microsoft. The WannaCry attack exploited the fact that an old Microsoft operating system — Microsoft XP — was still being used in many computers. And it hadn’t been updated in three years. (Later systems like Windows 10 are immune to ransomware, “thanks to Bulletin MS-17-010, released in March," Redmond Magazine reports.)  

At the same time, the National Security Agency was storing a Malware “exploit” that could take advantage of the Windows hole. So it did, and the result was havoc.

As The Daily Dot reports, Microsoft’s President Brad Smith “criticized the U.S. government’s weaponizing of computer vulnerabilities, the leak of which enabled this attack, and the dangers of not informing tech companies about them.”

Microsoft responded by releasing a security update on Friday for Windows XP. And to its credit, it reportedly has 3,500 engineers helping victims get back into their systems.

But Smith compared the situation to Tomahawk missiles being stolen, and that’s scary. It makes you question the validity of our science, and if the things we take for granted are true. For example, we wonder if:

There are oceans that can possibly support life on Europa and Enceladus.

Prisoners exonerated by DNA testing are actually guilty as charged.

Our stealth bombers can outfight Russian and Chinese aircraft.

Our vaunted missile defense systems can protect us from nuclear attack.

It’s easy to foresee the wiping out of aircraft, electrical grids, financial systems and just about everything that helps this society run.

What to do? For companies, the answer is to spend money on systems and to create a security culture within their staffs. And for governments? Wake up to this threat, Smith says. Protect your citizens, and put just a little of the money you spend on stunts in outer space on computer security at home. (Astronauts should feel particularly vulnerable to hacking).

Finally, as The Los Angeles Times says in an editorial: “Evidently we need stronger incentives not just for companies to release more secure products, but also for users to keep them updated and protect their data with encryption and backups.” That project should start now.