While this is a tough one to talk about, this topic is so very important and it touches on a lot of our lives. We are all so influenced by the words and actions of others, and we often think that what others say or do doesn’t have much of an impact on our lives.
The key is to always remember that we are in control of our own lives. If we choose to look at what others say or do and don’t change our behavior then it is most likely going to make no difference to us. To get to the bottom of this I would suggest a simple experiment. Imagine you are looking at a wall of photos of you and your mom doing something embarrassing. Now imagine you take a photo of yourself with your mom and then take a photo of your mom with you.
This is a very extreme example but it illustrates the concept of the adversary model. We all know that if someone does something wrong or does something harmful to us we are in control of our own lives and can make a bad decision or hurt someone else without a second thought. We can stop and make a choice to stop and say, “I think I should leave this person to her fate.” But without our awareness, we can just let the situation happen.
In the adversary model, people are the bad guys. But in cybercrime, we are the bad guys. We are the ones who are doing the harm.
I do think that the best option for some is to think it through, and you have to be aware of the risks and the costs before you can go ahead and put yourself in the shoes of the person that will do it for you. However, there’s a lot of things that our society might need to do to prepare for those risks. One of these is to prepare ourselves to deal with the worst possible scenario.
The adversary model is basically what it sounds like: “the bad guys are the bad guys and the bad guys are the bad guys.” It’s the idea that we are the bad guys, but the bad guys are going to make us pay for it.
Of course, there are also some of the people we should be looking at as potential adversaries but who are more like your average bad guy. We call these the “adversary model of cybercrime” or “bad guys as bad guys.” We have a lot of data on this, but basically you make the bad guys the bad guys and then everyone else gets to be the bad guys.
This makes sense, but in many cases we are still a bit of a mystery. We’re not even sure if cybercriminals are using the same tactics as our usual bad guys. For example, some of the techniques used by cybercriminals are similar to how we try to avoid paying our bills by not using prepaid accounts and credit cards. We’ve seen a lot of this in the last couple of years.
And then there are stories like the ones we have here on this blog where we see a bank or a credit union or a utility company being hacked. Not just in a small town but even big cities, you know, the big cities.
The problem is that these attacks are not only costly for the victim but also for the hackers. Most of the attacks are targeted at banks because of the high volume of money they make. The high-risk nature of these attacks, coupled with the financial risks they pose to the victim, has led to major bank closures in the last few years. So, while cybercriminals may not be out to get your money, they certainly are out to get you.
