National Cyber Security Awareness Month - week one Published Oct. 2, 2018 DISCLAIMER: This piece of fiction was provided by Air Mobility Command in recognition of National Cyber Security Awareness Month. It is intended to demonstrate the importance of good cyber security practices at home. HI NEIGHBOR! We haven't officially met yet but I live in your neighborhood. I’m writing you this letter just to let you know that I own and control you and your family. Your identities. Your finances. Everything. I know more about your children than you do, but more about them later. Let’s start at the beginning. Three years ago, you moved into my neighborhood. At that time I was just starting to learn how easy it was to hack into computers. Today it’s my hobby. But you’re smarter than me and it’ll never happen to you, right? You remember that flash drive you found in your driveway about two years ago? The cute one you thought belonged to one of your daughter’s friends? I left it there for you to find. And like a fool, you couldn’t resist plugging it in to your computer. That’s all it took! There were a few little programs on there that I found on the internet. They let me take over your computer. I turned your antivirus off so it wouldn’t catch more little programs I needed to load. I watched everything you typed. I could access every file on your computer because they weren’t encrypted. I could’ve stolen your identity and drained your bank account, but they may be able to track that back to me. So I only take a few dollars at a time and you have no clue. You still think you’re in control. And then you bought that nice new wireless laptop. I was into it and loading my software while you were still reading the manual! I was able to steal your wireless signal by sitting in my car with my laptop. Then, because you use the same password for everything (Michael720), I was in your laptop within 15 minutes! You’ve been using that same password for years. It’s a combination of your son’s name and his birthday. You’re such an idiot! I didn’t even have to use my password-cracker! And how did I know your son’s birthday? He told me. Yea, I’m his best friend online! That laptop has a much better webcam than your old one. Did you know your daughter uses it to Skype with her friends every night? I’ve recorded lots of her conversations over the last few months. I’ll post some of those conversations on YouTube someday. I’ll write again soon. Have a great day! http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/blog/lists/posts/post.aspx?ID=249 Disclaimer: This letter is fictitious. The threats, vulnerabilities and dangers are not.