Poker Perambulation

There is another kick UB circuit going on.   It is over a security issue that’d be hard to exploit — at best.  I’m not making excuses because the situation isn’t excusable.  Problem is figuring out who I’d supposedly be making excuses for.

The UB thing is dumb.  It a low grade bit of security that isn’t serious.  However, the exploits success is impossible to have happen if the user had done his part.  There isn’t any argument over the site to site security.  Site to site security is pretty standard and very hard to bypass.  We rely in this with our banking or credit card purchases without much thought.

Now whether it is one’s bank balance or storing a transaction in a database, encrypted data has to be made into plain text.  In that form, humans can make sense of the data.   Data inside the computer makes no sense to normal humans.  We all know it is a collection of zeros and one but that really begs the issue.  The on/off switch nature moves from bits type bytes to words to arrays of various data types.  This provides a degree of encryption that eliminates non-nerds.

We all saw the recent bit about a Luddite of note’s problems with virus/Trojan/whatever.   Don’t kick sand in the face ot that Neanderthal’s puny security.  He’s the norm and not the exception.   The banking industry just had a security meeting and decided to assume that all customer’s computers were compromised.  This reaches farther than any poker site can in our lives.

For the break-in to happen the WiFi from the individuals router must be going to a laptop that is playing on UB.  The router involved cannot have the security available enabled.  That’s stupid but even here the blame can be spread around.   Routers are sold with security disabled and manufacturers aren’t interested in it beyond selling the modem with a bullet in their advertising about security being included.  Many will need help if security is insisted on and that affects their bottom line; so they were done with security at the point the clerk rang up the sale.

If there is a last blame in this food chain, it has to be the user.   But, the user is often unaware that there is a responsibility to perform.  But, as Parry Mason says, “Ignorance is no excuse in the law.”

So, UB does need to correct “their problem” because, like those bankers, they can’t trust their customers.  Most customers can ignore all this and still not get toasted by some neer-do-well.  That works for most until it doesn’t.

Maybe UB’s stupidity should get a pat on the back for pointing out our collective stupidity.

ADDENDUM:

You can google router security and get a lot of help in setting things up properly.  At the very least you should change the default passwords and enable 128-bit encryption.  I’d  also suggest turning off the broadcast feature.   Now you’ll have to know and use info to be able to connect to your wifi setup.  That can be stored on a thumb drive in a file that can automate the process.   It doesn’t take a computer science degree to pull it off.

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