Some critics dismiss discussion of cyberwar as Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD), designed to increase sales of hardware, software and consulting services. Taking recent events into consideration, do you agree or disagree with the critics? Why?
I agree with the critics, to a particular extent. Again, I’m coming from a consumer based perspective, and I acknowledge that there is no such thing as too much security when it comes to financial and government related tech, but for the end user, most of the services advertised are superfluous. I’ve never seen Norton or McAfee actually prevent any damages, only hog system resources and pop up inane notifications in an attempt to justify the yearly subscription. Further measures, like cell phone verification can actually harm your security defenses, and as far as I can tell, only serves to harvest your personal information, and attempt to use your contacts to spread their web of PI. Plus, of these premier products is still depended on the reliability of the people providing them, and time and time again, we have seen that that faith is primarily unfounded.
http://www.howtogeek.com/212219/here%E2%80%99s-how-an-attacker-can-bypass-your-two-factor-authentication/
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/25/top-kaspersky-cybersecurity-manager-arrested-in-russia-on-treason-charge.html
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/john-mcafee-bath-salts-belize-murder-fugitive-gregory-faull