Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last several weeks, you’ve probably noticed that Stevens has been having some internet issues. This past summer, Stevens faced a serious malware attack that virtually shut down all servers and infiltrated the device of anyone who connected to the school-owned WiFi. I’m sure you knew all that already, but what I’m not sure you know is how comfortable we’ve gotten around the internet — and just how dangerous that comfort can be.
If you’re reading this and you’re currently in college, then you grew up during the Golden Age of computers and cell phones. As they progressed, so did we, and this has caused us to become pretty lax when we’re around technology. Of course we’re on the lookout for sketchy websites asking for our Social Security numbers or weird phone calls telling us that our cousin is trapped in London (I myself have received that call on one occasion), but it’s the smarter stuff we don’t know to be careful around. Not necessarily looking out for something as complicated and complex as what Stevens recently had to deal with, but for the dangers in our day-to-day lives that we simply haven’t thought about. And I think this recent hacking is a good reason to start talking about this kind of stuff.
Stuff like this happens more than you’d think. Every so often, there’s a news program about a password leak or a list of emails accidentally released by a large company. For anyone using those platforms, there’s instantly a bit of panic as we change our passwords and double-check that nothing’s changed on our accounts. But after a few days of nothing, we quell our fears and continue to go about our daily routines. Who’s to say, though, that those emails aren’t still compromised? Just because whoever has them didn’t do anything with them right away doesn’t mean that they don’t have them. And what about all those times you or I accidentally clicked on a sketchy website and a message popped up that we won an iPhone? We probably immediately clicked away, but was it too late? Just clicking on a link nowadays can spread a virus, or even just connecting to the internet can have major consequences (as we saw in Stevens’ case). The fact of the matter is, even though it seems like there’s a monitor in front of us to protect us from anything the wide web has to offer, it’s easy to make one mistake that could change your life. And that’s something we don’t consider enough when we’re browsing Reddit or logging onto myStevens.
My reason for writing this piece isn’t to scare anyone into becoming a recluse in the woods, living as far away from the internet as possible. It was written to start a dialogue about how we’re living with the internet and how we can make that relationship safer and healthier. Especially at a technology school, computers can be our biggest asset — but if we don’t respect the power they hold, they could be used as a weapon against us.
If you want to take away anything from the Stevens cyber-attack, take away the fact that we need to be less comfortable around our computers. We can’t always predict what’s going to happen (like the major malware hack we just experienced), but if we’re smart, we might be able to prevent other circumstances like this from arising. Otherwise, it might be too late for us to see our internet-comfort for what it really is: ignorance.
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