
Inside the Sony Hack - zmanian
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/users/2015/11/sony_employees_on_the_hack_one_year_later.single.html
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pquerna
This is very different than the Target hack -- we have become numb to credit
card focused hacks -- we all know the drill, we just get a new card in the
mail a few days later, and the banks are pretty good at detecting fraud:
[http://www.nasdaq.com/article/credit-card-fraud-and-id-
theft...](http://www.nasdaq.com/article/credit-card-fraud-and-id-theft-
statistics-cm520388)

To me both Sony and Ashley Madison are part of a very different type of hack,
that we are just starting to understand.

They leak massive amounts of personal information, and this personal
information can and does ruin lives. This article outlines much of the
emotional turmoil that Sony employees went through, and in Ashley Madison,
there were suicides as a result:

[http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/08/technology/ashley-madison-
su...](http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/08/technology/ashley-madison-suicide/)

You can rotate your credit card number, but rotating your real life is not
possible.

I don't see a way out. Going anonymous might be possible for living on the
internet, but you cannot be anonymous to your employer.

~~~
lfam
I'm very interesting in maintaining security and privacy while still being
able to use the internet, so please don't interpret this comment as a
dismissal of your concerns. I share your concerns 100%.

But I hate the phrase "ruin lives". How are lives ruined? Bad things happen to
people all the time, and their lives continue. It's really a poor way to talk
about these issues.

~~~
untog
_But I hate the phrase "ruin lives". How are lives ruined? Bad things happen
to people all the time, and their lives continue. It's really a poor way to
talk about these issues._

Leaking of your social security number can result in your credit rating being
ruined for years. This will leave you unable to take our a mortgage, buy a
car, etc. etc. In the Ashley Madison hack, details of people being unfaithful
in their marriages was exposed, which has led to divorce and even suicide.

If that doesn't count as a "ruined life", what does?

~~~
lfam
Those are all major problems. I think that "ruined life" is crap Newspeak.
It's like "boots on the ground", "inner-city", "financial crisis", "cloud",
and a billion examples from the "business world". These phrases prevent
thought and communication rather than facilitate it.

Aside from that, people will respond to those problems in a myriad of ways.
Almost all of them keep living and return to their baseline emotional state
again. Using the phrase "ruined life" ignores human resiliency which is very
powerful. It makes us sound like teenagers experiencing our first heartbreak.

~~~
untog
So you're saying that we shouldn't use "ruined life" in any circumstances? I'm
not really sure what the appeal is to here - that we should only ever use
clinical and unemotional words when describing things? Seems like a net loss
to me. If I think my life has been ruined why can't I say that?

~~~
lfam
Of course you should use it when you think its appropriate. For example, if
you left your boots on the ground, it would be appropriate to describe them as
"boots on the ground". If you are talking about the historic center of a city,
call it the "inner-city".

But for the examples you gave upthread, it would be more accurate and useful
to say "ruined credit" (and in that case, it's really only for some years) or
"ruined marriage".

If someone spent their life in prison and lost their mind due to a wrongful
conviction, I'd call that a "ruined life". And if you feel your life is
ruined, you should say it.

But I read the phrase "ruined life" and I really don't think it communicates
anything except for "bad thing". So why not just express the value judgment
and say "That's bad and here's why" rather than trying to describe a life as
"ruined"? It's another phrase that has lost whatever meaning it once had.

~~~
lotso
I think a lot of the people who have had identify fraud happen to them would
say their life has been ruined. This seems like a silly argument on whether or
not their lives have been "really ruined" or not when we get the point. Yes,
it is a phrase, maybe it is overused, but does it really matter?

