What is this ‘Wannacry ransomware’ or ‘WannaCrypt ransomware’?
‘Ransomware’ is a type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid.
On Friday, the world experienced the wrath of a well-coordinated ransomware attack, known as WannaCrypt. The attack caused Britain’s NHS to cancel surgeries, a wide array of Russian and Chinese private and public institutions to be crippled most of the day, and the rest of the world to recoil in shock.
How could a single piece of malware that exploited a vulnerability identified long ago by the NSA, and leaked last month by a group called the Shadow Brokers, wreak so much havoc?
Yes indeed, how could this malware have wreaked so much havoc? It’s simple. Because we are stupid. We have grown so dependent on technology and artificial intelligence that we have lost our intelligence. In handing over every aspect of our lives to machines, we have given up any privacy we had which includes our medical records, our social security number; our very identity. This is why we are constantly hearing of identity theft and this has produced another corporation to operate in order to ‘restore our good name’ and to take back what was stolen from thieves, for a price, of course.
Now along comes this ransomware software that has been holding computer systems hostage until money is paid in the form of Bitcoin. If there were no computers, would this have even happened? Of course not.
The article goes on to state that Britain’s National Health Service had to cancel surgeries. Would the NHS have had to cancel surgeries a mere thirty years ago? No! Because medical records were kept in the form of folders in a file cabinet. You remember those, don’t you? Your doctor came into the exam room with your paper file and in it were your medical records and all that was needed to ensure that you’d had all of your immunizations, checkups and any upcoming medical events. You received a telephone call to remind you of any preparations you needed to make before surgery and guess what, we did fine. But now, since all medical records are electronic and are at the mercy of anyone who wants to underhandedly try and hold them for ‘ransom’, we’ve got a problem. This is only the beginning. You can’t see how easy it is for your information to end up in the hands of those who seek to profit from it? All the hacking of your credit/debit cards taught you nothing? Of course not because you are still handing them over. You don’t even remember a time before there were credit/debit cards, do you? More’s the pity because we were all the better for it.
What we have here is ‘civilization’, is it not? And how well is that working out for us? We are so happy, aren’t we? Can’t you tell just by going on Facebook and Twitter? Isn’t everyone just loving all up and down on each other? No one is sending vitriolic comments back and forth. Family members are not blocking one another over political differences, are they? Can you not see what is happening to us? We are descending, not into civilized mode, but into such boorish, uncouth and vulgar behavior, we would put Neanderthals to the blush. But we have all the creature comforts we could possibly want; electricity, running water, indoor toilets, computers, video games, garage door openers, devices that turn on/off our lights, open our doors, alarms for our homes, vehicles to get us to where we want to go, airplanes to get us there even faster and trains for the view. We’ve got it all. And this has made us most happy. So, why then, this?
HOUSTON —
Americans actually report being among the most unhappy people in the world.
Anti-depressant usage has increased 400 percent since 1994. So why are so many people may be unhappy, and what you can do to change that?
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in 10 adults in America reports being clinically depressed.
It’s probably more than that. Why are we unhappy? We’ve got it all, don’t we? We’ve got ALL the creature comforts and so then, why are we depressed? Why are we on opioids? Why are we committing suicide at alarming rates?
Suicide; The Saddest Trend
“America is in the grip of a sustained raise in the suicide rate across all age groups and for both sexes. From 1999 to 2014, the suicide rate rose by 24%. The numbers are adjusted to take account of aging. Men shoot themselves; women take poison. There has been a rise in suffocation and strangulation.”
Add to this the fact that we are a nation of addicts, as well.
Inside a Killer Drug Epidemic: A Look at America’s Opioid Crisis
Opioid addiction is America’s 50-state epidemic. It courses along Interstate highways in the form of cheap smuggled heroin, and flows out of “pill mill” clinics where pain medicine is handed out like candy. It has ripped through New England towns, where people overdose in the aisles of dollar stores, and it has ravaged coal country, where addicts speed-dial the sole doctor in town licensed to prescribe a medication.
Public health officials have called the current opioid epidemic the worst drug crisis in American history, killing more than 33,000 people in 2015. Overdose deaths were nearly equal to the number of deaths from car crashes. In 2015, for the first time, deaths from heroin alone surpassed gun homicides.
Again I ask, why are we a nation of addicts when we should be celebrating ALL that we have in the form of technology? Technology has given us all of our creature comforts. We don’t have to use a washboard to do our laundry like our grandmothers had to do. We don’t have to go out back and use the toilet like many of our folks in the south had to do. We don’t have to dry our clothing on the clothesline. We’ve got dryers for that. We’ve got microwaves so we don’t have to wait to eat. We’ve got mixers so we can beat that cake batter so much faster. We’ve got a device that will even open and close our window blinds for us. Look at all the gadgets we’ve got. Hell! Even our car can park itself and some can drive without us. And soon, kiosks are coming to fast food restaurants and so we don’t even have to bother with ordering our fast food from a person, we’ll just punch in on a screen what we want and voila, our order is complete. So why are we unhappy, pill popping, suicidal, stressed out and willing to be held hostage by malware? I’ll tell you why. This is not civilization. This is not paradise. This is us aiding and abetting in our own demise. This is what those who are behind the scenes had in store for us all the time.
We are a Social Security number, a credit score, a zip code, an insurance risk, a medical records number on a computer, but we are never, ever seen as human and so we don’t even think of each other as human and this is why we treat each other like shit. This is not civilization. This is a dystopian society; a society of human oppression, misery and disease. And we are all held hostage by the very devices we think we need in order to exist. We don’t need these things. These ‘things’ need us. Those who implement these ‘things’ and who control these ‘things’ need us. We don’t need them. We work because we think we need to and we are only prolonging our misery and our suffering and those who put this all into play are counting on us never realizing and waking up to the fact that we are aiding and abetting in assuring that our suffering and misery will continue until we either get so depressed, we take drugs or we just step up on a stool, put a rope around our necks and then step off that stool.
Why is money important? Who made money important? What do you think would happen if there was a hacker who could bring down our entire electric grid? Oh I’ve read articles telling us that ‘90% of us would be dead in no time flat’. That is just not true. Those of us who are alive today just cannot remember a time when there was no power grid to begin with. Did those people die? Did they all starve? If they did, we would not be here. Think about that. Our so-called creature comforts which are a direct result of an electric grid are what is standing between us and the simple things in life that were all we needed until we were told otherwise. We were told that we needed to buy a house and so get a mortgage. Go to the bank and hock yourself for 30 years and then work for someone to pay for that house because that was the American dream. And millions of us did just that. We were told that the horse and buggy was too slow. Now, you have an automobile and is it getting you where you want to go any faster? Those hours you spend sitting in traffic, a horse could have galloped by you multiple times. And you would not be choking on carbon dioxide fumes. The Amish don’t seem to mind getting around via horse and buggy or not having electricity and so then why are we willingly going along with this ‘Utopia’ which is anything but? Who is controlling us? Who is getting rich off us? Who made the barter system obsolete? Who got us hating one another since we feel we don’t need each other or that we can’t depend on each other like we used to do so many, many years ago?
You see, the so-called ‘elites’ are counting on us not waking up to the realization that money could be made redundant just as they would be if we no longer gave money any value. And to devalue money, to make money worthless is to quit buying and to not buy into the fallacy that without money, life would end. Life would actually begin without money. Think about it. Why have they made it illegal to live off-grid? Because by doing so, you are not giving money any value. You have devalued money. You’ve made it redundant. You’ve made those who’ve made money mean everything to us, redundant and so therefore, there would be no place for them, no use for them and no use for money. We would actually need each other, depend on each other which is what we used to do. The cops and the military are only there to protect the interests of the ‘elites’. They are there to serve them, not us. And you cannot see this?
I remember when I was growing up, there used to be what was called, ‘rent parties’. If someone did not have enough to pay their rent, folks in the neighborhood would host dinners and every mother would cook and offer plates of food to be sold at the ‘rent party’ and the money would be handed over to tide the person who lost their job over until they got back on their feet. Now, we use ‘GoFundMe’. But the thing about that is, could it be caught up in the next ‘ransomware’ attack and the money stolen by hackers? Again, just something to think about.
It is really sad when there is an epidemic of drug addicts and suicides. It is really sad when people have allowed themselves to be played for that ‘almighty dollar’. And the sad fact is that churches are part of the problem. If ‘Jesus’ could preach by the Sea of Galilee, then why the need for all of these palaces of worship? If Jesus had nothing but contempt for what he called, ‘the moneychangers’ and began to cast them out of the temple, what does that tell you about how Jesus felt about money? You cannot have it both ways; worship Jesus and money. You don’t worship, nor do you adhere to the teachings of Jesus because if you did, you would ‘leave your worldly goods behind and follow him’. But you’re hypocrites because you won’t do that. You are the ‘moneychangers’; the hypocrites that Jesus cast out of the temple. Money is not buying us happiness. Money is only buying us someone else’s illusion of ‘happiness’ and it’s not working for millions, if not billions of us. Think about it.
And Jesus said,
“What see I here? Shall my Father’s house be thus dishonored? Is this the house of God, or is it a market-place? How can the strangers who come from the land of the Gentiles to worship God perform their devotions in this tumult of usury? And you,” he continued, advancing a step toward the priests, who stared at him in amazement, “You priests, guardians of the temple, can you see this abomination and permit it to continue? Woe be unto you! He who searches the heart knows why you encourage such disorder. “Away with you from here, servants to Mammon! I command it. Take what belongs to you and quit the holy place!”
Although I am not religious because religion has been turned into whatever your preacher deems it is, I am sure that you can see your own church or house of worship in the above paragraph. And so what does that say for you? Think about it while you’re sitting in traffic choking on fumes and playing with your smartphone. Think about the fact that the reason why you won’t do anything about your situation other than become a drug addict or commit suicide is because we have been made soft and pliable and this is why despite all of our so-called creature comforts, we are the most depressed, drug addicted suicidal ‘people’ that never lived! And those who put this all into play are counting on our very acquiescence; our submission to the continued status quo and we will not disappoint them.
shelbycourtland 