Page 5 - Sojourner Newsletter-Fall 2023 v1.3

Volume 100, Issue 4 5

FROM THE WEBMASTER

SECURITY – it’s more important than ever before. If you haven’t been watching all
the arguments about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its potential impacts on everyday
life, you just haven’t been paying attention or you’re paying attention to the wrong
things. AI is becoming even more prevalent in state-sponsored hacking as well as
malware and phishing schemes than ever before. And, because AI “learns” as it is
used, the emails you get from these nefarious characters will LOOK AND FEEL more and more like
the “real thing” and will make you think it’s safe to “click” on the link they provide.

Simple truth: NEVER, EVER click on an embedded link in an email – no matter how good a friend
it is from or how much you “trust” the source. Be suspicious of every instance with an embedded
link. If it is necessary, open your browser and go DIRECTLY to the site in question, log in with your
credentials, and verify whatever it is that came to you in that email.

Yes, it is POSSIBLE that the email is legitimate, but as AI becomes more and more present in our
lives, you won’t be able to “trust” even your favorite news sources.

When I first became a naval cryptologic officer, the Navy sent me to the Naval Security Station for a
two week special intelligence course entitled “Manipulative Communications Cover and Deception.
Now, this was in 1971. Imagine what technology has done in the intervening years! We studied a
number of deception programs – back to the Roman times, up to the 7-day Israeli/Egyptian War and a
lot in between. Perhaps the most intricate and involved (and successful) deception plan ever
implemented was what we called “The Man Who Never Was” (which, by the way, is the title of a
movie starring Clifton Webb) – it tells the story of a British plan to fool the German High Command
and Hitler about where the D-Day landings were to take place. It’s a fantastic story, and there are
twists and turns (that were real) that will make you wonder just how they were successful.

The bottom line of that course was … you CANNOT absolutely trust any source of information by
itself. And, under the right circumstances, you can’t trust it even if there are other corroborating
sources. You have to be REALLY diligent to keep yourself out of the malware world.

You can say, “but I don’t have anything worthwhile”, and unfortunately, it’s not your opinion (or
mine) that matters – it’s the malware provider’s assessment – whether they can get enough $$$ in
return for their effort to make it worthwhile. And, of course, there’s always the mischievous hacker
that is just doing this stuff to see how much hate and discontent they can create. Brothers, it won’t
matter one iota what political party, religion, or any other social label you have – these folks are
“equal opportunity” hackers.

A word to the wise is sufficient. Keep running your antivirus/antimalware programs REGULARLY!

– Bill Hickey, National Webmaster (webmaster@usncva.org)