This Week in Getting Hacked: Summer Blockbuster Edition

Welcome back to everyone’s favorite cybersecurity and hacking-related blog, This Week in Getting Hacked!

Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the Internet…

On to the links!

-Someone is going to make a film about that Sony Pictures hack that happened last year. It won’t, however, be an overly-dramatized adaptation of what happened, but rather a boring, stupid documentary about how someone revealed Ben Affleck had slave owners in his family and that nobody likes Angelina Jolie. RIVETING. I just hope that in the ultimate twist of irony, Warner Bros. is producing it. They really should spice it up with a few more explosions, maybe a car chase, possibly someone yelling about a mainframe; there’s a lot to really make this a good flick and not some stupid documentary about stuff I already know about.

Actual scene from film…

-Lost in the shuffle of a lot of news last week was that the IRS got hacked and had a bunch of people’s info and identities stolen. That wasn’t some Home Depot hack where they got your credit card and a few other bits of info—this is the friggin’ IRS. These dudes have the MOTHERLOAD of data. The hackers got in because the IRS (!!!) decided to forgo updating and securing their IT systems, and spent that money on “Nerf footballs that were never used, the world’s largest crossword puzzle, $100 lunches, and Thomas the Tank Engine Wristbands.” The IRS is so boring that even the things they buy are boring.

-The Dark Web is basically the sewer of the Internet—the dark underbelly of the Internet, if you will. You can buy drugs, weapons, and other fun stuff, and now apparently authorities are finding that people can buy DIY hacking kits on the Dark Web. I love how we have to capitalize that, by the way—it makes it seem less like a shady street corner and more like Mordor. Anywhoo, a bunch of amateur hackers are combing the Dark Web to find some DIY hacking kits and that’s scary to corporations, businesses, and people alike, because now anybody can get their hands on something to completely ruin your life. All seriousness aside (like there ever is any), do DIY hacking kits come with a can of Mountain Dew, Flaming Hot Cheetos, and an MP3 file of your mom yelling at you to get off the Internet and come upstairs from the basement? Boom, roasted.

-Turns out that GoPro camera you bought can be hacked and TURNED AGAINST YOU AND USED FOR EVIL. Ha! Just when you thought you were safe in a remote location on a river somewhere, you’re not. TERROR IS EVERYWHERE.

Sleep tight and see you next week!