If the groundhog sees his shadow the Internet will be insecure. If not; Internet security needs improvement.

By Ira Winkler

I am always amazed at what fools the media makes of themselves around Groundhog Day. The fact is that it is mass confusion that creates a media and tourism event for a town that would otherwise be unheard of. This is the way that we get a lot of myths proliferating in the security space. One person says it. It gets some stupid reporter interested, and everyone swears to it.

The actual Groundhog Day myth is, “If the Groundhog sees his shadow it is going to be 6 more weeks of winter. If not, there are only 40 more days until spring.”

Please do the math. Six more weeks of winter is 42 days. Do you now see why this is a scam on a massive scale? It is true that the media lately has changed, “…40 more days until to spring,” to “spring is just around the corner.” Either way, it is a pointless event.

However people manipulate statistics and the way that they describe events to manipulate people. While this may be a stupid news story for stations looking to fill 30 seconds, it is indicative of how easy it is to manipulate people.

Related posts:

1. Does it really matter that the VT killer used the Internet?
2. Media Coverage Creating Post Traumatic Stress
3. Hack them all and let God sort it out
4. Domain registrar removes seclists.org without due process, who’s next?
5. ISO 27001 Standard Released

Posted by Ira.Winkler on Friday, February 2nd, 2007, at 2:30 pm, and filed under Articles.

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