23 hours Ago By Niall Kitson
18 April 2025 I’m going to ask a bizarre question, especially given that the readership of this column is made up almost entirely of people who work in the technology industry for a living. But anyway here it is: Knowing what you do now, do you think we should have approached the whole computerisation, Internet and e-commerce stuff with a little more care and attention? I ask this in the context of the plethora of reports and studies that seem designed to scare the bejaysus out of any of us doing anything on our phones, tablets, laptops or computers. It seems like almost every week there’s a new story reporting that cybercrime is on the rise or revealing alarming statistics on the number of businesses and other organisations that have been affected by a ransomware attack, data breach or leak.
I use the word ‘designed’ because, for the most part, those reports and studies don’t seem to be doing a good job of changing or modifying people’s behaviours around how they use their devices, the information they share with the dodgy websites they visit, the stuff they download, the text messages they click on, etc etc. That suggests to me that people are unwilling to accept the level of risk associated with using technology and the potential harms it can do to them and the organisations they work for or interact with. Why might that be? Is it possibly because we’re natural risk takers? Or that we just don’t know what the risks are – or choose not to know? Think how often you’ve heard someone say “you could just as easily get knocked down crossing the street” in response to another person suggesting it might not be a good idea to embark on a potentially hazardous venture.
I’m fairly certain that a substantial number of people out there just carry on regardless and pretend the risk, such as it is, doesn’t exist or won’t affect them. Even if they know of someone who has been affected, that doesn’t always make them modify their behaviour enough. Maybe their first impulse, when reading a sentence like this, “The threat landscape for small and midsized businesses remains highly dynamic, with criminals constantly adapting their tactics to new defensive measures and exploiting vulnerabilities new and old alike as opportunities emerge.
”, is a feeling of exhausted helplessness. That they really want just to get on with running their business rather than having to spend time and energy dealing with all the extraneous threats besetting them. No wonder, when the next sentence is: “Responding to this environment is more than most small organisations can handle without external support and is a strain even on organisations with dedicated IT teams.
” In case you’re wondering, those lines come from the The Sophos Annual Threat Report but they could be from any number of cyber threat reports. You have to wonder if, given the choice, people might have willingly sacrificed a slightly slower rate of innovation and functionality upgrade for a more secure environment. At the moment, we have the bizarre situation where, unlike other innovations that become safer as they evolve (air travel, cars, electricity, electrical items, etc), IT seems to be more dangerous to an increasing number of people and organisations.
Does that seem normal to you? Read More: Billy MacInnes Blog Blogs.
