Firstly, disclosure: from April I will have an interest in Facebook’s wellbeing* but I don’t think that skews my perspective on this matter; I have a long and documented history of laying into politicians and journalists who are swept up in the mythology of cyberspace and the fearmongering around it.
But never before have I seem something quite so epic, so incandescent, so furious as this — and from one of online journalism’s own gods:
I have no idea how I missed this yesterday, but it’s truly perfect. He loses his composure but rationally I am right there behind him on this one; my reason especially for my posting it is that apparently it aired at 3am and therefore will receive almost no viewership as a result, especially since the BBC will bury this.
Sometimes security events are bad — well, rarely are they ever good — but those which are contained are not a problem, and no longer are they even a story unless they impact other people.
tl;dr — If security works, then why is it a story?
This is how the fad of cybersecurity will end: by its becoming mundane, its practitioners criticised and ridiculed.
Relevant Twitter thread linked off this:
I called the BBC on its technopanic story about a Facebook “hack.” They didn’t want to hear it.
— Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) February 16, 2013
UPDATE: Adding coverage elsewhere, Updated: Sunday 17 Feb 1000h
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* details to be posted in a couple of weeks
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