Cybersecurity has link to Wild West TV

When studying various cybersecurity methodologies, I have often appreciated the wild west TV shows of the 1950s.

When a fight broke out at the saloon on one end of town, the sheriff and the only deputy hurried to get there. That’s when the rest of the outlaws could easily rob the bank on the other side of town.

The Lone Ranger wore a disguise to gather valuable counter-intelligence information so that he and Tonto could plot their counter-insurgence activity. Today’s spoofing for corporate espionage and today’s nation-state-funded cyber attacks are nothing new; they just involve more people and more information.

Identity theft is as old as killing a cowboy and stealing his clothes. Oh, and did the Cavendish gang ever find out whether those graves of Texas Rangers all had bodies, or did they simply assume that they did? (Note: assuming that information is true is one of today’s biggest problems with using the Internet.)

In a duel, the one who turned around early, drew his gun and shot on the count of two -rather than three- walked away. Today, infrastructure outage pre-empts responses to attacks, you know.

And, it mattered whether you wore a white hat or a black hat. In fact, today’s computer hackers are called “white hat” or “black hat” for this very reason. Wow, there’s some word etymology!

But where, or where, did the many challenges of life on the wild frontier (now, think “Wild, Wonderful West Virginia” here) turn into complaining that the microwave is broken? Mountaineers do not have to blindly follow already documented mistakes in infrastructure, technology, society, government, education, private business, personal lives, etc. We may “leap frog” nearby enterprises and take the lead we deserve and have earned.

Think about the “better, faster, cheaper” advantage we have.

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